April 7, 2007 in Manhattan
Li Hongzhi

Disciple: The Chinese New Year Spectacular has played an important role in saving sentient beings. Some practitioners said that in order to save sentient beings and enable more people to come and see our show, we could cut ticket prices and disregard the financial losses it would cause the show. Was such thinking right?

Master: No, it was not. You had to cut prices or give away some tickets because you didn't do well, didn't accomplish what you needed to, had no other choice, and faced an imminent problem. That's why it was done. It was the result of your not doing well.

Disciple: When I clarify the facts, I have found that it is harder for some overseas Chinese to accept the truth than those living in China.

Master: It was like that before, but that is no longer the case. The older generation of overseas Chinese who left mainland China earlier on arrived in their respective countries right when the wicked Party's bloc and the free world were in confrontation around the world. The countries in the wicked Party's bloc, and even their people, were really looked down upon by others. That wasn't because those people were from a different country, but because China was a society ruled by the wicked Party; it resulted in Chinese people being looked down upon. Whenever the topic of China came up, no one approved, because China was synonymous with the evil Communist Party. So, some older overseas Chinese felt a sense of shame and humiliation. They are happy when China is strong and prosperous, and this is the result of their failing to make a clear distinction between the CCP and China--it's a complicated state of mind--even though they don't necessarily approve of the wicked CCP. If China were not under the wicked CCP's reign today and had a normal government, and if at the same time it was strong and prosperous, they would of course be happy. We need to identify where the key issue for them lies. When we explain the truth, we need to determine where the obstacle is in the person's mind.

Disciple: Some of the performances that directly depict Dafa things underwent changes during the Chinese New Year Spectacular shows in New York. Was this because the disciples did not have strong righteous thoughts, or because the audience could not accept those things?

Master: The changes in the program were minor things. If something is not all that suitable, then it should be changed. There was interference, all of which came from special agents of the wicked Party. They tried to interfere with me, but it didn't work in the least. If I want to do something, no one can affect it no matter how he may try. (Applause) So I often told Dafa disciples: "You have to be clear about what you are doing. You can listen to and heed others' suggestions, but if you are walking the right path you should not constantly waver to and fro."

Incidentally, I'd like to tell you something. You all know that during these years when the wicked CCP has been persecuting Dafa disciples, whether it was some CCP agents exhibiting wicked behavior on the Internet or the wicked CCP making up lies in the media, they surely maligned me continually and made up lies of every sort. Of course, those were all the worst types of sins, ones that they cannot possibly atone for; they will come to realize this in the future. But I never listened to or looked at any of it. Did you realize that? I never looked at those websites whatsoever--would you believe that? (Applause) I knew that they would malign me, but I had no interest in learning what names they were calling me. And of course, practitioners couldn't bring themselves to tell me, so no one repeated those things to me. (Audience laughs) Why would I want to look at that stuff? Those things couldn't sway me. I knew what I was doing, and I knew the beginning and the end of this affair, and that was plenty! (Applause) So as for this process in the middle, I completely disregard all of the myriad changes that occur, whatever they may be. As long as my Dafa disciples are walking their paths well and I ensure there are no problems, that is all I worry about. (Applause)

Disciple: Master's new scripture said to disintegrate completely the meddling deities in the Three Realms that have a hand in interfering with Fa-rectification. What does "meddling deities" refer to?

Master: Meddling deities... the old forces and all that negatively impacts Dafa are considered meddling deities. (Applause)

Disciple: The orthodox religions from history can no longer provide guidance for cultivation, and now they are interfering with the Fa-rectification. How should we regard them, then?

Master: I have talked about how they should be handled. You are not to take any action directed at religions, as we only focus on what's in people's minds. If a person wants to cultivate, then talk to him [about Dafa]; and if he wants to listen to the facts, then explain them to him, and it will be fine. There is nothing special that needs to be done, and you don't have to go seek out this group. Just wait for them to come to you. I have said that all beings would come and listen to the truth, because it is their attitude toward Dafa that will determine whether they are kept or not. Why are those meddling deities that exercise control over religions to be cleared out? It's because people in those [religions] have to take a stance, and those meddling deities are not letting them and are depriving them of opportunities to be saved, so they must be cleared out. And it is because they are destroying sentient beings. Despite the fact that they manifest as deities, many beings [with religious affiliations] reincarnated from even higher levels [than those deities] and became human beings. They are so much higher than them that they [the meddling deities] are not worthy of ruining those people. So the meddling deities must be cleaned out and all beings be given a chance to take a stance.

Disciple: Greetings, Master! I am a Dafa disciple from Beijing. Before we left China, quite a few Beijing Dafa disciples reminded us repeatedly that if we had a chance to see Master to make sure to relay their greetings! We miss Master very much. Today we finally have the opportunity to fulfill what they entrusted us to do, so on their behalf, I do Heshi to Master and extend greetings! Greetings, Master! Greetings, Master!

Master: Thank you! (Applause) I thank the Dafa disciples in Beijing! It's not that Beijing Dafa disciples are not doing a good job. As you know, the largest amount of evil forces are concentrated in Beijing, so in terms of the effectiveness of clarifying the facts and the state of the practitioners, things there definitely lag behind other places. It's not because the practitioners are lacking, but rather, that the evil forces are greater there and are more concentrated there. With the comprehensive destruction of more and more of the evil, the Dafa disciples in Beijing will not fall behind or be lacking compared to disciples in other places. That's for sure. (Applause)

Disciple: Dafa disciples from Osaka, Japan, send their greetings to our great Master! Master, you have been working hard! I have been in anguish over my inability to let go of my sense of self, which has caused a delay in saving sentient beings. Besides studying the Fa more, what else can I do to better meet the requirements for a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple?

Master: Since you know that you haven't done well enough, just make it up and live up to the requirements. The Dafa disciples' three things are to be done well. At present, the most important thing is to save sentient beings, save more people! That is the most important thing.

Disciple: Disciples from California do Heshi to Master! Master, please tell us if we should still establish Renaissance University? Is the medical science of the future a part of cultivation?

Master: Whether to establish the university depends on whether conditions are ripe. [You're asking about] the medical science of the future? Even the present medical sciences are not cultivation, it seems. (Disciples laugh) Dafa disciples can cultivate while working in any occupation, but those occupations are not in and of themselves cultivation.

Disciple: Greetings, Master! Disciples from Harbin city send their greetings to Master!

Master: I thank the Dafa disciples from Harbin.

Disciple: In light of how the English Epoch Times has been operating recently, could Master provide some guidance?

Master: These matters have to do with how you are handling things. Why have there been problems, you ask? That ought to be something I ask you. (Master laughs) (Disciples laugh) You are short on human, material, and financial resources, so the challenges are definitely daunting. However, the Chinese Epoch Times encountered these in the early days as well, and made it through--it battled its way through. You might consider doing more to learn from and draw on those experiences. The specifics of how to run the paper are still up to you, though. It's the same as figuring out how to cultivate well.

Disciple: A while back, the Minghui website added a note to an article, saying that currently disciples should try their best not to marry non-practitioners or new practitioners. A Dafa disciple from Taiwan would like to ask about this for a Dafa disciple from mainland China.

Master: That article was written by a Dafa disciple, and what Dafa disciples have written is open to discussion and the exchange of ideas. It's not that the Fa has asked you to do something, nor that it has to be handled a certain way. Master didn't say that, and the Fa does not require it. However, when Dafa disciples do things, it's prudent for them to put extra thought into it. You are a Dafa disciple, after all, so you have to be responsible to your cultivation, and you have to be responsible to the environment Dafa disciples have. So, I think that if you can manage to consider things on that basis, you will know whether certain things should be done, and, if so, how they should be done. If you put yourself first, it's likely many things will not go well, and problems will arise. If you truly want to be responsible to Dafa and to your own cultivation, you will do things well.

Disciple: I have to work during the time for sending righteous thoughts. Will it be effective if I send righteous thoughts while working?

Master: Under extremely special circumstances, that is, where you really can't set aside whatever work is at hand, you may finish your work and then send righteous thoughts. You might say, "I'll work while sending righteous thoughts," but that's very hard to do, really hard to do. When you are working at an ordinary workplace, you don't necessarily have to use the hand positions, since others might not understand it. It's fine if you just sit there quietly, because using the mind is enough for purposes of sending righteous thoughts. If you are doing work at the same time, you definitely won't manage to send righteous thoughts well. If you say that you really can't [stop working], then it's okay for you to continue with your work and make it up later. But that said, when Dafa disciples around the world send righteous thoughts together at the same time, the power is boundless. So, if each person had been able to handle this matter with very strong righteous thoughts and been doing it very well from the beginning, then perhaps there would be no evil remaining now. It's precisely because many practitioners have been interfered with by one thing or another that it hasn't been done well.

Disciple: It's 3:30 P.M. now, and Master has been teaching the Fa for nearly two hours. Disciples invite Master to take a moment to have a sip of water.

Master: In a little while. (Applause)

Disciple: What can Dafa disciples do to help another disciple who is on his death bed?

Master: The best thing is to read the Fa to him. Regardless of whether he was supposed to depart at this time, it is all up to him. Also, regardless of whether my Dafa disciples were killed as a result of persecution or departed this world as a result of being persecuted by the old forces during this period of time, they have all reached Consummation. (Applause) Why does it work out this way? You know that the entire universe is watching this Fa-rectification intently, and the Three Realms were created for the sake of Fa-rectification. All beings have been waiting throughout the long course of history, all for today's Fa-rectification. Every single thing that happens in the human world today is really significant! And especially significant are any events that have direct ties to Dafa, Fa-rectification, or Dafa disciples. If someone dares to say "Falun Dafa is good" during this period of time when the persecution is happening--just based on that one heartfelt statement, and without doing anything else--this person will definitely return to his original place! (Applause) Why is that? During this period of time and amidst an evil environment, he still dares to validate the Fa, so he will definitely become a divine being. Whoever does even just a small kind deed or minor good thing for Dafa disciples during this time of persecution will definitely become a divine being! (Applause) That is because this is the most crucial moment in history, and gods are watching intently every single thought in the minds of every single being. Innumerable, countless beings in the universe are watching the world's people. There are eyes in every particle of the air--the air is filled to the brim with those who are watching everything, seeing every little shift [in the thoughts and behavior] of the beings in this place. That's because this place here is the focal point of Fa-rectification, and [things that happen here] impact the future of all beings in the entire universe. Human eyes can't see these things, so it appears to them that nothing significant is going on. But countless gods, unprecedented numbers of them, are watching the Three Realms intently. If a human being could really see this, he would find it downright terrifying. Not a single thought that a person has and not a single idea that crosses his mind goes unseen by the multitude of gods. Thus, whatever a person does during this period of time is determining his own future. Then as for a Dafa disciple, someone who has done so many things that Dafa disciples should do, think about it: Where should he end up, then? Wasn't [the type of person mentioned above] persecuted to the point of death simply on account of being a Dafa disciple? Isn't he a Dafa disciple? Not only will he achieve Consummation, he will receive all the honor and glory that a Dafa disciple should have. (Applause)

Now that I am on this subject, something comes to mind. We have certain practitioners who can't quite be called secret agents, but the things that you have done are truly terrible. You still want to cultivate, but the bad things that you have done before are being seized upon by the CCP, which in turn uses that knowledge to threaten you. You are afraid that once the CCP exposes you, Dafa disciples will treat you differently. You are afraid that Master will treat you differently. Actually, I have long known about you! Because of that [fear], you are doing things against your own will that the evil wants you to do. On the one hand you want to be a Dafa disciple, but on the other you have kept on doing bad things. So you tell me, how should I deal with you? Right now you have only two choices: You can truly cultivate with determination, in which case you are then a Dafa disciple and everything that you have accomplished will become your mighty virtue; or, you can stand on the side of the evil, in which case everything that you have done will be for naught and become things that you did to cover your tracks. I have already made this matter very clear. Moreover, let me tell you all that in the not-so-distant future every single person this describes will not be given any more time. The time is coming very soon! It will take place very soon. In human words it is "retribution," and it is imminent. But no matter what I said before, with certain people it just went in one ear and out the other. Whether or not you choose to believe it, at this crucial, historic moment [your decision] is no small matter. You have read the Fa. Which course shall you take? You should give this some thought and decide for yourself!

Disciple: How should we lead and guide our children in their cultivation?

Master: Should you, as Dafa disciples, really need to be told what to do? If your child can't do the exercises yet, you should read the Fa to him and teach him to sing Dafa disciples' songs. The children of many Dafa disciples can recite Hong Yin. Some of them can recite many poems from it at a very young age. They are truly good kids.

Disciple: After being brainwashed by the evil, certain Dafa practitioners in mainland China helped the evil to persecute Dafa disciples who were detained, rendering those disciples disabled. The family members of the victims want to file personal injury lawsuits against them. Master, please tell us how we should handle this.

Master: Ordinary people of course have their own ways of dealing with this. If someone has physically disabled someone through persecution, of course the aggrieved party will go after him. In cultivation, it is human beings doing cultivation, not gods. If someone has committed crimes among human beings, he of course has to pay for it. But on the other hand, if [that brainwashed person] can truly cultivate again and cultivate steadfastly, it is possible many things will be changed. I have said that everything is here for the sake of the Fa, and that this is first and foremost. But if you can't do things well and if you can't meet the standard, then you are an ordinary person. And as an ordinary person, you have to face the realities that ordinary people deal with.

Disciple: Disciples in San Diego send greetings to Master! Master, what should Dafa disciples do in light of the surge of interest in learning Chinese right now? Will working on Chinese language education affect other projects that validate the Fa?

Master: Indeed, Dafa disciples know that Americans don't have a good grasp of the wicked CCP's stuff. Americans still don't understand the culture of the Party, despite its having contested with the wicked Communist Party for so many years. The current textbooks made by the wicked CCP are [full of] the Party's culture. If people learn Chinese using textbooks from mainland China, won't they be shaped into people of the wicked Party's culture? Dafa disciples can see this very clearly, so they have thought, "Can we put together some textbooks and make them available to American educational institutions?" In that case, the textbooks have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Failing that, they won't be of use even if you do create them. If you feel that you can achieve that, then you can go ahead with it, and if not, then it's of little consequence if it can't be done.

Disciple: When promoting tickets for the NTDTV shows, disciples have adopted an abbreviated expression, "tui," for "promoting" tickets. But in Chinese the word sounds similar to the term that means "returning for a refund" (tui). People have wondered if this will have a negative effect.

Master: There is no negative effect. But since "promoting" tickets and "returning" tickets for a refund have the same sound, let's just change the expression. Let's stop calling it "promoting tickets" and call it "selling tickets" (mai) instead--won't that solve the problem? (Audience laughs) It's true--[you'd be saying,] "promoting tickets, promoting tickets," and at first I couldn't tell whether you were "promoting tickets" or "returning tickets for a refund." Calling it "selling tickets" is pretty good, right? (Audience laughs)

Disciple: Media organizations such as New Tang Dynasty Television and the Epoch Times have played immeasurable roles in the Fa-rectification. What can be done so that our media organizations can stand on their own financially, and have no monetary concerns?

Master: It depends on you. I've talked about these things many times, but there will always be a need for people to do things like visiting potential clients and doing sales and marketing. As you are Dafa disciples, whatever it is you are asked to do--be it writing articles, distributing materials, or going out to the streets--you can do it well. But it seems that if you are asked to visit potential clients and do sales and marketing, you don't want to.

Disciple: In past lectures, Master always said that Chinese culture is a semi-divine culture. Today you said that it is a divinely-bestowed culture.

Master: That's right. It was divine beings who gave the Chinese people their culture, and what manifests here is a culture that is half-human and half-divine. The two aren't inconsistent. The culture of China is a semi-divine culture, but it was bestowed to human beings by gods.

Disciple: What kind of attitude should we who are overseas Dafa practitioners have toward practitioners in China who wish to come overseas? Should we encourage them to stay in China?

Master: I don't want to state anything in absolute terms when it comes to these things. Otherwise, upon my saying something today, many people would go to an extreme. Dafa disciples are to fulfill the things that they are supposed to do! This holds true no matter where they are. The vows that you once made must be fulfilled, and the beings that you need to save must be saved!

Disciple: Because of the increasing number of projects that validate the Fa, the number of people who clarify the facts to the U.S. government has decreased, and many things are progressing slowly.

Master: There is a set amount of financial resources, material resources, and manpower, and there are so many things that we still need to do. That being the case, you need to take a look at which things are unimportant, which are important, and determine how to balance it all well.

Some governments have indeed not done well, and that is because the restraints that the old forces have placed on the governments of different countries are enormous. Why is that the case? It is because they know that Dafa disciples have to do so many things in Fa-rectification and have such great challenges, and the goal is to establish the Dafa disciples' mighty virtue. If a powerful government were to say something, or all governments were to fire away at the wicked party's regime, the wicked CCP would collapse overnight and the persecution would not be able to continue. In that case, wouldn't this environment that tests Dafa disciples no longer exist? And could they still cultivate, then? So the restraints that the old forces have placed on each of the different governments are of the strongest kind. Looking at the situation today, it is clear that very soon the rotten demons of the wicked Party won't be able to control each of the different governments anymore. With the massive annihilation of evil now taking place, the evil's ability to control human beings is rapidly diminishing.

Disciple: I see that there are many religious people who truly want to do cultivation, but their religious beliefs are blocking them from learning the truth.

Master: It is not due to their religions that they are kept from learning the truth, but rather, it's that factors from the meddling deities of those religions are having a negative effect. Right now the factors in that category are becoming fewer and fewer; increasingly more of them are being destroyed. Great changes will gradually come about. Just wait and see. (Applause)

Disciple: Dafa disciples from Belgium, Long Island of New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, France's Besançon, Toronto and Edmonton of Canada, South America, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and South Korea send greetings to Master!

Master: Thank you all. (Applause)

Disciple: (This question is from a Western practitioner.) Master said that right now it is not individual cultivation [that we're doing], but rather saving sentient beings. Could I ask Master to please explain this point in greater depth?

Master: One's individual improvement is still first and foremost. What I was saying is that while validating the Fa, out of the things that Dafa disciples need to do, the most important thing is saving sentient beings, and this is quite pressing right now. Dafa disciples as a whole have, in the course of cultivating, passed through several different phases. Before July 20 of 1999, the most important thing for Dafa disciples was to improve in individual cultivation. Everything else was unimportant. Back then, many practitioners felt that as soon as they studied the Fa and did the exercises, they were shooting upward like a rocket, flying upward. The breakthroughs they were making in level were extremely fast. Whether you were standing or sitting, you were making breakthroughs--you were making breakthroughs even while walking around or eating a meal! It really was the case that at that time, as long as you were studying the Fa you were pushed upward; it was imperative that Dafa disciples be pushed to their proper places within a set amount of time. That way they would be able to save sentient beings when the time came. And that way they would be able to withstand it when the old forces did indeed begin to carry out their evil and when the persecution really did begin.

Then after July 20, 1999--that is, during the persecution--[the question became one of] whether you could become a true Dafa disciple, and during the persecution it would be seen whether you were true gold. [It was a question of] whether you could step forward and whether you could continue to cultivate under the evil's pressure. Didn't many religions in history encounter this? Wasn't it perfectly obvious? But due to the attachment of fear and a host of other attachments, some people could not hold up. Suddenly the person would find this or that [part of Dafa] not to his liking. But it wasn't that Dafa itself or things that Master did failed to suit his tastes; rather, it was that he had become afraid and was making excuses! He wouldn't dare to step forward, dare to read the books, dare to cultivate in the Fa, or dare to do the exercises.

Right now, the Fa-rectification and Dafa disciples have withstood the persecution, and done so while validating the Fa; and with each step, they have drawn ever closer to the end. The evil elements have been eliminated to the point that hardly any remain, and the pressure is no longer so great. Looking at the overall situation, there is no longer a question of whether Dafa disciples can achieve Consummation during the maturation process. The biggest thing that needs to be done at present is to figure out how to save even more of the world's people! Save all beings! This has become a monumental effort for Dafa disciples.

During this persecution, the evil has persecuted not only Dafa disciples, but also the people of the world! If a person has wrong ideas and thoughts about Dafa, he will be eliminated as soon as the mighty current of Fa-rectification arrives, for what he opposes is the Fa that created the entire universe of the future. In that case, where could he go? If he doesn't want to enter the future, he can only be disintegrated and cease to exist. That's why it is critical that Dafa disciples save all beings.

Disciple: After many Chinese practitioners heard [what you said about individual cultivation], they no longer paid much attention to their own cultivation. Should it be like this? (Master: That is going to extremes, which is of course wrong.) Shouldn't we go about saving sentient beings with our own continuous improvement in individual cultivation as the foundation?

Master: That is of course the case. It must be done that way. You can't let up with your individual cultivation. No matter what you are doing, be it clarifying the facts or doing projects that validate Dafa, you must first put cultivating yourself well as top priority; only then can the things that you do be more sacred, for then you are a Dafa disciple, and are doing things as a Dafa disciple to validate the Fa. Ordinary people can also do the things that Dafa disciples do, but they cannot have the mighty virtue of Dafa disciples. They can only receive blessings and virtue, and accumulate future blessings.

Disciple: Dafa disciples in Ireland send greetings to our compassionate, great Master! During the past several years, the work of validating the Fa in Ireland has encountered enormous ordeals. After more than a year of hard work by Dafa disciples, we have basically caught up with the progress of Fa-rectification. Master, please tell us whether the ordeals that we experienced were because of the disciples' lack of diligence, or were they due to the arrangements of the old forces and the evil's persecution?

Master: Both were contributing factors. During the past few years, the evil elements were more numerous, and during this present period of time, the evil elements are few and Dafa disciples have become ever more mature. There were a multitude of reasons. Of course, the thing that is of greater importance is to cultivate yourselves well.

Questions: Dafa disciples in Xinbin city of Liaoning province, Huairou area of Beijing, Fengtai district of Beijing, Zhejiang province, Liaoping county of Chongqing city, Lanzhou city of Gansu province, Jinchang city, Gulang county, Harbin city, Changzhou city, the Tongzhou area of Beijing, Jiamusi city, Shanghai Military District, Wuhan Military Zone, Chengdu Military Zone, Guangzhou Military Zone, the China Airlines system, Jiangxi province, Yuncheng city of Shanxi province, Zhangjiako city, Lechang city of Guangdong province, Baoding city of Hebei province, Wuhan city, and Shangxi province send greetings to Master! (Master: Thank you all!) Dafa disciples in Fuyang city in Anhui province, Wuhan city in Hubei province, Jinzhou city, Chaoyang city, Shantou city and Jieyang city in Guangdong province, Chaoyang district and Haidian district of Beijing, Tieling city of Liaoning province, Changding county of Fujian province, Chengdu city of Sichuan province, the Wenjiang area of Chengdu city, Henan province, Huanggang city, Heze city of Shandong province, the Yanliang district in Shanxi province, Zhanjiang city, the arts and entertainment community in Beijing, Benxi city of Liaoning province, Daqing city, Kunshan city, Shengli Oil Field, Dongying city, Guangzhou city, Baoding city of Hebei province, Lanzhou city of Gansu province, Xinjiang province, Ankai city, Deyang city, Mianyang city, Santai city, Changsha city, Chengde city of Hebei province, the Xianghe area of Chifang city, Yunnan province, Tsinghua University, Macheng city of Hubei province, Beijing Institute of Technology, Taian city, the Shunxi area of Beijing, Chongqing city, the Yangpu district of Shanghai, Shijiazhuang city of Hebei province, and Qingdao city send greetings to Master. (Master: Thank you all!)

[Disciples from] Norway, Germany, Austria, Australia's Queensland, Seattle of the U.S., Canada, the city of Melbourne, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Japan, Montreal, Sweden, Finland, San Diego, Ottawa, Cuba, Boston, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Houston, New York, Laos, New Mexico, Malaysia, New Zealand, Israel, Los Angeles, France, Sicily of Italy, Vietnam, New York's Albany, India, and all the teachers and students at the Fei Tian Dance School send greetings to Master.

Master: Thank you all! (Applause)

Disciple: My child is a high school student. He is studying the Fa, but he is not as diligent as when he was younger. Whenever he gets near the bad things in ordinary society, I get really worried.

Master: Yes, when the children were of an age such that the Dafa disciples could personally take care of them, things were great. You taught the children to memorize the Fa and do the exercises every day. As soon as the children started school, though, things changed. The impact that society has on children is truly large. It has to do with the morality of all of society sliding downwards. Children have no way to resist it. As soon as they enter society, they enter a big dye vat. If you are able to urge your children to study the Fa and do the exercises as you did before, it will be harder for them to slide downwards along with society. Many young Dafa disciples have gone in the other direction and become quite bad as they grew up, and that is the reason.

Disciple: Master, please talk about how to balance the demands of doing one project better alongside launching into more projects.

Master: That will depend on how you coordinate things among yourselves. How you balance it is up to you. The amount of energy that a person needs to put into a project to do it well must be sizeable. If new projects are started up on top of [what you already have], time is certainly going to be tight. That's often the case. How should these things be handled? Many of our Dafa disciples have responsibilities in multiple projects, and things are indeed quite difficult. Master knows about your challenges. In the future, I will tell the Dafa disciples in mainland China about these challenges you have dealt with, and let them know about how you, under such trying circumstances, have validated the Fa and restrained the evil's persecution of them.

Disciple: Dafa disciples have managed to do many things while short of hands, but the results of some projects have been less than ideal. I feel that certain projects require us to become more professional, and only then will they be able to move forward better.

Master: That is indeed the case. [What you referred to is] just like with the New Year's show. For a few years, our Dafa disciples put a great deal of effort into it, but the effect was limited because the degree of professionalism was not quite up to par. Once it became of professional caliber, it was a different story altogether.

Disciple: The series "Dissolving the Culture of the CCP," published by Dajiyuan, provides a thorough analysis of the Party's culture, but it doesn't provide any clear answers [to the problem]. Is the answer to be provided by Dafa disciples as they validate the Fa?

Master: The answer lies in the five thousand years of Chinese civilization. The five thousand years of Chinese culture is true, legitimate human culture. That is the answer.

Disciple: Master, could you please talk about the significance in Fa-rectification of the Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition?

Master: You all know that several main things are playing a vanguard role in driving the downward slide of human society. One is the works created [of late] in performing arts, and another is those works created [of late] in the fine arts. These are what impact people the most directly, and what has the biggest influence on people's minds and consciousness, as well as sensory organs. They directly influence and drive changes in people's moral standards, and they corrupt human beings the fastest and in the most direct way. Therefore, the forms taken by modernist art, modernist culture, and modernist performing arts are playing a vanguard role. Mankind has discarded the true, legitimate forms of artistic creation that gods bestowed to man, and created some things that are modernist and heavily imbued with demon-nature, negating the things that gods passed on to man and rendering worthless the true forms of divinely-bestowed artistic creation.

Dafa disciples know that human culture was divinely bestowed to man and that not believing in gods is the fundamental reason for human morality's downward slide. Dafa disciples thus cannot view things with the sunken moral standard of human beings. What Dafa disciples create must be things that harken back to what gods bestowed to man. In that case, what you are doing in and of itself stops and smothers corrupt elements, and plays the leading role in restoring things to their original state. That is for sure, so the art exhibit itself exposes the persecution while at the same time bringing people back [to the right state] by way of the methods used to create the works; it enables them to return to the way of human beings, and helps people to turn around and go back.

When human beings discard the methods of creating art that gods once taught to man, the biggest problem is that people have put first their own mindset and ideas about creating art, and abandoned the guideline that gods taught to man: depict things accurately. When art is created, accurately depicting objects is first and foremost, and that can't be changed. The reason is, this was divinely bestowed, and it is the standard by which an artist's level of technical mastery is verified. Once it is changed, things become chaotic and lack principle, and that is the reason behind the appearance of modernist things. When man, in his artistic creations, fails to place the highest value on authenticity by accurately depicting things, what he creates is just doodles, not fine art. Since human beings are no longer up to standard and their moral standard has been corrupted, when they are devoid of upright thoughts, gods give up on them. The path [taken by human beings] then becomes ever more aimless, and ever more dangerous.

Disciple: During interviews, some renowned lawyers, human rights activists, and ordinary people in mainland China have repeatedly asked us to send their greetings to Master. They think that Dafa disciples are the only hope for China's future.

Master: It's not wrong to say that, but Dafa disciples are not interested in the political power of ordinary people, nor will they get involved in ordinary affairs. We are just opposing the persecution and saving people. It's not wrong for human beings to give much importance to human political power, and, what type of political entity will govern in the future is important for society. Dafa disciples are cultivators. Disintegrating the evil CCP is the single most fundamental way to bring the persecution to an end, and exposing the wicked CCP's crimes is done in order to rescue all the lives that have been poisoned by it. Everything of the Three Realms was prepared for Dafa disciples' cultivation and the saving of beings today, and the affairs of Dafa disciples are the most important. When in the future the Fa rectifies the human world, a new state of affairs will emerge for mankind. In other words, what happens in the future belongs to the future. Thus Dafa disciples should just concentrate on doing what they are to do. In the near future, gods will display themselves to mankind, and all that human beings don't believe in will be displayed before the people who remain, and mankind will revert back to the path that it is truly meant to follow.

Disciple: Dafa disciples in Macheng of Hubei province miss Master very much. They asked me to send their greetings to you. (Master: I thank the Dafa disciples in Macheng.) Yesterday I read on the Minghui website that disciples in mainland China are following Minghui Radio's broadcasts and doing the exercises in synch throughout China, and the results have been quite good. What should Dafa disciples outside of China do?

Master: That ought to be a good thing. I am still observing it and looking to see how it ultimately turns out.

Disciple: Recently I've hosted several people from mainland China who call themselves Dafa disciples, and have watched the old forces take advantage of these practitioners' omissions. They are even from the same region and claim that they have come to the U.S. to assist Master in Fa-rectification. But in my interactions with them, I see that they don't really do the things that Dafa disciples should do. In addition to being preoccupied with things related to their immigration status or jobs and such, their cultivation states are not good.

Master: Right. I don't want to say anything right now, and I wish not to draw any conclusions yet, because whatever I say will create difficulties for their cultivation. Whether a person can make it is not only determined by whether he cultivates, but also by whether that life is capable of being saved. Whatever the case, regardless of whether they have left China or are still there, they must handle themselves as true Dafa disciples. Otherwise it makes no difference where they are.

Disciple: Though all of my family members are Dafa disciples, for a long time we still haven't been able to resolve certain conflicts. I feel both perplexed and pained by it.

Master: As Dafa disciples go about cultivating, conflicts are sure to surface. If you can't all search inward, then regardless of whether you belong to the same family or are normal fellow practitioners, the conflicts will keep growing larger and larger, and you still won't be able to pass the tests even as time drags on. How can you resolve this, then? All of you must search inward. If one person is able to take the lead in doing so, he will cause things to ease up. If all of you are able to do so, things will be resolved.

What kind of attitude do many Dafa disciples consistently have toward their family members? "They are my family members, so when it comes to things that would be good for them, what I say goes. I will take care of some things for them since, after all, I'm looking out for their best interests." That's not how it works. Once you start to cultivate, you are fellow practitioners, and each of you is to return to your own heavenly kingdom. Whoever has cultivated well will be able to return, and no one can [do cultivation] on behalf of someone else. Among ordinary people, it might be that once someone becomes a powerful official, he can have his family benefit along with him. That can happen, for those are ordinary human affairs. But that doesn't work with matters that transcend ordinary human affairs. Whoever cultivates benefits, and if a person doesn't cultivate he won't benefit--nobody can cultivate on someone else's behalf. That being the case, you must take seriously the problems and conflicts that emerge among you. You can't behave like ordinary people, who do whatever they want to. If you can truly regard your family members as Dafa disciples and as fellow practitioners when it comes to handling matters of cultivation, I think you will definitely be able to resolve the conflicts.

Disciple: Dafa disciples in mainland China have made many talismans with images of Buddha Shakyamuni, Bodhisattva Guanyin, and the like on them. After Master published the article "Disintegrate Completely All the Meddling Deities in the Three Realms That Have a Hand in Interfering with Fa-Rectification," some disciples concluded that it is inappropriate to use the images of those deities on talismans. Master, please give us some guidance on this.

Master: Of course that's inappropriate. The reason those worked for human beings previously was that Master was making them work, based on the fact that you were saving people. But that was not an appropriate thing for you to do. Dafa disciples are to validate Dafa, so how can you go and validate other gods? When it comes down to it, who are those people saved by, then? Isn't that a major problem? Isn't that leading people to believe in deities who themselves still need to take their stance on Dafa during the Fa-rectification? Whether [those deities] can remain or not still depends on their actions. Those talismans by themselves have no effect--it is Master making them work. Validating the Fa is Dafa disciples' task, and absolutely not the task of those deities. You must be clear on this.

Disciple: I have seen many fellow practitioners recently go through trials that have to do with emotion (qing).

Master: Yes, that is true. The wicked CCP wants to push human society towards destruction, and that is the method it uses. Embezzlement, corruption, and such don't count for much. Let's look at it from another angle. Let's say that a person is involved in embezzlement and graft, and the money that he embezzles belongs to the CCP. If the CCP is weakened because of his corruption, then he has actually done something good. (Audience laughs, applauds) So that's not a problem. The biggest problem is that the wicked CCP is destroying human morality. The CCP knows that Falun Gong teaches Zhen, Shan, Ren and teaches people to be good, so it in turn teaches people to be bad, especially in terms of relationships with members of the opposite sex. Do you know the depths that Chinese society has sunk to? It is terribly depraved--a society that has become utterly depraved. A pure young girl, an innocent girl, is really hard to find nowadays. Why has it gotten so bad? Doesn't [the CCP] just want to destroy people? Don't Dafa disciples want to cultivate back to their original selves? Why do you not watch yourselves when it comes to this? Do you want to become depraved along with society, along with the evil CCP? Isn't this a grave matter? Looking at things from this point of view, are the people in mainland China still in a human state? Isn't it serious?! Dafa disciples are to intercept and put a stop to the world's descent! It's about not letting mankind slide downward, so why is it that you yourself for such a long time now haven't managed to step out of that? You absolutely must pay attention to this!

Dafa disciples should not, under any circumstance, have any further problems in this regard. I don't want to see you make these kinds of mistakes. The boy and girl students in the performing arts troupe normally aren't allowed to just casually intermingle. Also, because they are so young, they are strictly forbidden from dating. Other Dafa disciples need to pay attention to these same issues. If this kind of problem happens at our academy, whoever is involved will be sent home without exception, to be sure. When Dafa disciples themselves can't do well, they cannot save sentient beings. If you cannot manage to do well yourself, how could you save sentient beings? When the thoughts that you project are unrighteous, how could you do that task well? It's the same as assisting the evil, then.

Disciple: It has been less than a year since I obtained the Fa. I have consistently tried hard to do the three things well and keep up with the enormous current of Fa-rectification. What kinds of suggestions do you have for disciples who have obtained the Fa only recently?

Master: This is a great question. To those Dafa disciples who have just obtained the Fa, I say that you are so fortunate. Do you know what kind of group you have joined? These cultivators have made it to today after going through the harshest of tests. Of course, this persecution hasn't ended yet, but the evil is no longer so abundant or rampant, and the pressure is no longer so great. However, it won't be that just because you have entered [Dafa] only recently the standard of cultivation will be lowered for you. So in cultivation you must try hard to do the three things that Dafa disciples should do well, and at the same time save sentient beings and fulfill the roles that Dafa disciples should. In order to do these things well, you must study the Fa well. Make great efforts at studying the Fa, and you will be able to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification, and you will in an impressive manner become a Dafa disciple who befits that name and is of the Fa-rectification period.

That's all for today. (Applause)

Master is truly happy to see you all (warm applause), especially today. (Applause) Dafa disciples who have made it through during this persecution: You are really outstanding. (Applause) You will receive all the honor and glory that Dafa disciples are to have in the future. (Applause) You have made it through the most grueling, difficult period of time. I think that Dafa disciples should, in the limited amount of time that remains at the end, fulfill their historic missions even better and more splendidly! (Long applause)