Some Reflections on the Fa

Some Thoughts on “Qigong and Physical Exercises”

For a long while, whenever I read the section “Qigong and Physical Exercises” in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun, I would have a totally different understanding each time.

For a long time, I understood only superficially that there was a great difference between Qigong and physical exercise. It was only after I memorized some of Teacher’s new articles written in 2001 and studied “Touring North America to Teach the Fa” that I realized physical exercises actually corresponded to the fundamentally degraded notions of the old forces up to the highest level. How did I come to this conclusion? This kind of degraded notion is clearly pointed out in the section “Practicing Evil Cultivation” in Lecture Five of Zhuan Falun. When I read this, I started thinking: When a lower-level enlightened being sees that the Fa and the universe below him is depraved, he does not and cannot bring everything back to its best and most harmonious state. Instead, he employs a less-depraved enlightened being to destroy and then reconstruct the lower realms. Since this phase of the universe’s history is described in Lecture Five, I believe that it was the fifth generation of enlightened beings in the universe that first invented this solution. And because the topic “Practicing Evil Cultivation” is included in Lecture Five, the solution that requires destroying and reconstructing the universe must be an evil one that contradicts the law of the new universe.

This solution can be compared to what goes on in the body regarding physical exercise. The rationale behind replacing the old with the new is similar to the theories explaining the mechanisms of physical exercise. Teacher mentions that “one must increase the amount of exercise and intensify physical training” and perform “strenuous movements” to get healthy through physical exercise. “One must intensify the training and increase blood circulation, and then the newly divided cells can replace the old ones. It takes this path. This is to say, before the cell’s entire journey is over or while only half of its life is through, it will be replaced. The body will thus always maintain strength and make improvements.” (From “Qigong and Physical Exercise” in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun.) Looking at it jokingly, and from the viewpoint of the big picture, this could be the “fitness guide” of the old universe.

But Teacher goes on to say, “Yet human cells cannot divide like this endlessly, as the number of cell divisions is finite.” To me, this suggests that the old forces are fully aware of the fact, but they cannot do anything about it. Although such a solution might be sustainable for a very long time, the universe will eventually come to an end, as the number of times the universe can be destroyed and reconstructed is finite. Talking about physical exercise in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun, Teacher provides an example and says, “…suppose that when a cell divides a hundred times for a normal person, he can live one hundred years. But now this cell has only lived for half of its life, so he can only live for fifty years.” The old forces do not know, or they refuse to believe, that it is precisely their self-rescue solution—that is, their “athletic,” metabolizing efforts to keep themselves “healthy”—that has accelerated the aging process of the universe and themselves, and eventually lead to complete annihilation. In other words, their efforts will prove to be in vain.

Up to this point, I found myself focusing on only the passages regarding physical exercises in “Qigong and Physical Exercises,” but did not really think about Qigong and the Fa. After reciting “Lunyu” repeatedly, I was finally caught by this passage: “Some people even dare not face, touch upon, or admit facts of phenomena that objectively exist, because they are too conservative and unwilling to change their conventional thinking.” I suddenly realized that “some people” here could in fact refer to the old forces. Furthermore, the following sentences imply that the goal of Qigong for the body is comparable to that of Dafa, the all-encompassing, eternal law of the new universe: “Only through ‘the Buddha’s Fa’ can mysteries of the universe, time-space, and the human body be completely unveiled. It is able to truly distinguish what is righteous from evil, good from bad, and eliminate all misconceptions while providing what is correct.” (From “Lunyu”)

In the “Qigong and Physical Exercises” section of Lecture Nine, Teacher says, “A true practice that cultivates the body will constantly accumulate the collected high-energy matter in the cells of one's body and constantly increase its density to gradually repress and slowly replace those everyday person's cells. At this time there will be a qualitative change, and this person will stay young forever.” It became apparent to me that, likewise, only the Fa can save this universe from annihilation by repressing impure matter, and renewing and replenishing the universe. Only then can the cosmos undergo a qualitative change, stay eternally young, and be forever indestructible. The corresponding result in ordinary human society would be a rise of ethical and moral standards.

Brutal acts are not the solution for accomplishing a sacred goal. The brutal acts of the old forces that follow the laws of the old universe, put simply, consist of killing and sacrificing. It is necessary for the old forces to annihilate all before they can create new lives. The old forces appear to be compassionate, but they really are evil. They manifest their evil when they annihilate those who do not deserve to be destroyed. Even when the old forces create new lives, the new creations face the same fate as the previous creations—they will perish. This solution cannot be further away from the goal of harmony, let alone eternity.

Some Thoughts on the All-Encompassing and Eternal Nature of the Fa

If destroying and reconstructing the universe is not an eternal solution for the universe, what is? I remember a passage in “Wealth with Virtue” in Essentials for Further Advancement: “Thus, those who seek power and wealth must first accumulate virtue. By suffering hardships and doing good deeds one can accumulate virtue among the masses.” I believe that the Fa revealed in the first sentence of Teacher’s essay is the principle that will guide the future generations of humans in the new universe. In other words, to me this means that wealth and power will come to a person in his present life in exchange for the virtue he accumulates in his present life. The law of the old universe contrasts with that of the new universe in that wealth and power can only come to a person in his next life in exchange for his accumulated virtue in his present life. In my opinion, the second sentence of the quote from “Wealth and Virtue” suggests that in the future the way to obtain wealth is for one to suffer hardships and do good deeds for other people.

In the section “Why Doesn’t Your Gong Increase with Your Practice?” in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun, Teacher discusses the Fa of how “one will gain something in the next lifetime if not in this life.” But I often feel that this old Fa isn’t all-encompassing. As Teacher put it, “Wealth without virtue (de) will harm all sentient beings.” (From “Wealth with Virtue” in Essentials for Further Advancement.) The law of trading virtue in ones present life for wealth and power in the next life can lead one to have wealth without having virtue and thus harm sentient beings. This person was able to accumulate some de in his previous life and therefore is arranged to receive reward in terms of having wealth in this life. This by itself is not wrong. Yet in this life, the person is simultaneously injected with notions of doing bad deeds and harming other people. In another scenario, this person accumulated a lot of karma in his previous life and therefore has received punishment in this life. Even if he does good deeds in this life, he will not receive reward for his good deeds until the next life. All these principles seem reasonable on the surface. It seems that human beings are lost in a maze and have to become enlightened so they can walk out of the maze. But the sequence of such arrangements will only promote wickedness and insanity in people, suppressing benevolence and diluting it with cowardice. All these arrangements serve the purpose of indirectly cheating and frustrating human beings, leading to a continually growing suppression of kindness and the promotion of evil. In such an environment, human beings are driven to create karma, which accelerates self-destruction. In such an environment, human beings continue to err until they have passed the point of no return. The intentional loophole is so small that it is almost undetectable. Human beings, who are confined to the maze, are prohibited from knowing the truth of the universe. How can they have any way of recognizing the evil arrangements that have baffled even the divine beings at very high levels?

In addition, I remember that Teacher mentioned in one of his lectures that nowadays many people actively pursue wealth and power in their present life, trading away their virtue. Their choice fully manifests a Chinese idiom, “Consume in the present year the supplies that belong to the next.” These people are like those disciples of an evil martial arts sect in traditional Chinese martial arts novels. They would go as far as to [follow a sinister martial arts teacher to] cut their own arteries and veins in exchange for ephemeral glory in their martial art.

No loss, no gain. Those who do not pursue will lose nothing. Thus it follows that those who do not pursue wealth will not lose any virtue when wealth comes to them. The law of “no loss, no gain” is a form of eternal perseverance.

According to my understandings, for future generations of human beings, most of the virtue carried from their present and previous lives will be used in their present human life. They accumulate virtue in their present life so that wealth and power will come to them in their present life. I think my understanding echoes with the Fa-rectification verse, “Immediate retribution in this lifetime.” The Fa rewards good deeds and punishes bad ones in the present lifetime. The law of “immediate retribution in this lifetime” not only allows human beings to keep reincarnating as humans, but also suppresses evil and promotes kindness. In addition, it maintains the enhanced moral standard in the human realm. It also sustains the Fa in the human world. Teacher has already described the future of the correct human world in his article “Definitive Conclusion” from Essentials for Further Advancement: “Dafa is unchangeable and unshakable. It will live on forever and always exist in the world. Heaven and earth will remain stable forever.”

Teacher explicitly points out how a benevolent ordinary person should behave. In “Dafa Is All-Encompassing” from Essentials for Further Advancement II, Teacher wrote, “An everyday person’s kindness… manifests in not keeping count of others’ wrongs, not holding grudges, not getting jealous, not deliberately seeking revenge, not killing people, not taking innocent life irrationally, and not harming life intentionally.” There are a total of seven forms of benevolence listed here. I think that they must be the standards of benevolence for future generations. The old laws of the Three Realms are the reverse of the laws at high levels, yet the seven principles of benevolence that Teacher listed are an exception. I think these seven model behaviors might guide all lives in the universe, including the enlightened beings at the highest levels of the universe. Such a high-level law is consistent throughout the cosmos, from the highest levels of the cosmos to the human world. In other words, Teacher has left us a ladder to heaven! Master mentioned in “The Blessing from Dafa” from Essentials for Further Advancement II that Dafa disciples are harmonizing the “immeasurable colossal firmament’s all-encompassing and eternal Fa-principles.” Actually, it is only because Teacher gave us the “immeasurable colossal firmament’s all-encompassing and eternal Fa-principles.”

Some Thoughts on the Boundless Content of Dafa

After I enlightened to new layers of the Fa when studying “Qigong and Physical Exercises” in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun, I studied this section again and suddenly felt it in my heart how Teacher had compressed layers of the boundless and profound Fa into this book. In Zhuan Falun, Teacher explains the degenerated notions and arrangements of the old forces up to the highest levels, as well as the approach of Fa-rectification. It became clear to me that Zhuan Falun describes the laws of the old universe, the behaviors of the degenerated beings of the old universe and their tragic flaws, the approaches of the Fa-rectification, the laws of the new universe, the all-encompassing and eternal manifestations of the Fa, and their origin. Zhuan Falun goes far beyond cultivation; it indeed has enormous and boundless content.

Teacher never speaks of anything without having a meaningful purpose. So it follows that what Teacher has constantly emphasized and repeated must be extremely significant. I have read “Touring North America to Teach the Fa” several times, but I couldn’t understand why Teacher explained in detail so many things regarding the profound origins of the universe, or why Teacher elaborated on the origin of history. What was it that Teacher wanted us to know? How did Teacher want us to carry out our mission? It is only now that I have started to understand a little of what Teacher expects from us. Teacher wants us to re-understand everything from scratch so that we will truly be able to create the future based on the laws of the new universe.

Without knowing the laws of the new universe, it is likely that we will be unable to distinguish the laws of the old universe, or identify the laws made by the old forces. As a result, we might be unclear as to how to participate in the Fa-rectification, not to mention creating the future for the universe. To let the world know about the tactics and tricks used by the old forces is to help clarify the truth and expose the evil.

Thoughts on Some of the Old Forces’ Arrangements

In the essay “Dafa Is Indestructible” Teacher says, “But in order to achieve everything they’ve wanted to, the old, evil forces in the cosmos have directly taken part in persecuting Dafa, Dafa disciples, and sentient beings.” Through studying “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun, I realized that spirit and animal possession is one of the many tactics used by the old forces. But how did spirit and animal possession come into existence in the first place?

In “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three, it says: “It is not that those animals know how to practice cultivation. At the beginning, they also do not know at all what cultivation is. They just have that primordial instinct. Then, under special conditions and circumstances, it may have some effect over a period of time. They will be able to obtain energy and develop supernormal abilities.”

Contemplating this passage, I started to wonder when these animals began to use their primordial instinct to gain supernormal abilities. It was probably 2,000 years ago. However, since these animals “do not know at all what cultivation is,” then what is the meaning of preserving their “primordial instinct” at the time when their lives are created? Moreover, why did the higher beings create “the specific conditions and circumstances” for animals from the middle period to the end of the present human civilization? If these are special arrangements, these arrangements must have some purpose or goal. Apparently the goal is to enable these animals to “obtain energy and develop supernormal capabilities.” That being the case, animals should be allowed to cultivate and obtain supernormal abilities! Otherwise, what is the meaning of opening a back door to animals for cultivation?

On the other hand, in the same section of Zhuan Falun, “Spirit or Animal Possession,” Teacher says, “However, there is a principle in our universe: Animals are not allowed to succeed in cultivation.” This Fa explicitly stipulates that, “Animals are not allowed to succeed in cultivation.” Not only are animals prohibited from succeeding in cultivation, but they also are killed once every several hundred years in some sort of calamity or disaster. This is “because they do not have the human inborn nature; they cannot practice cultivation like human beings as they do not possess human qualities. If they succeed in cultivation, they are bound to be demons. They are thus not allowed to succeed in cultivation.” (From “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun.) Because animals do not have an inborn human nature, they are forbidden to succeed in cultivation. However, a paradox exists—the higher beings intentionally provide animals with opportunities for cultivation, knowing full well that the animals will be killed before they succeed in cultivation. Instead of preventing animals from cultivating, the higher beings simply perform damage control every once in a while. This loophole is indeed too severe and controversial to be ignored by any enlightened being that knows the law of the universe.

And this is not even these beings’ most vicious arrangement. On the one hand, the higher beings grant animals opportunities to cultivate, but stop their cultivation and kill them when they acquire supernormal abilities. But on the other hand, they deliberately let animals know that they must have a human body for cultivation to escape death. So naturally, those animals with supernormal abilities resort to possessing human beings. It seems they have no choice, yet, as it says in Zhuan Falun, “Throughout human history, animals have been forbidden to possess people. When they did, they were killed, whoever saw it would not allow it.” (From “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three.) The law of the universe also stipulates, “There is a principle in our universe that normally other people cannot interfere with whatever one pursues and wants for oneself. The animal takes advantage of this loophole, ‘If he wants something, I will supply him, It isn’t wrong for me to help him, is it?’ The animal will give it to him.” (From “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun.)

Although these are the laws of the cosmos, they really do not make much sense. At first there was an insurmountable barrier between human beings and animals, but somehow someone cracked the barrier in order to secretly encourage animals to manipulate humans, and thereby destroy humans and all sentient beings in the Dharma-Ending Period. It is in fact a malicious arrangement to hamper the Fa-rectification, because the purpose of the Fa- rectification serves a completely opposite goal— save all sentient beings.

In addition, the Fa also stipulates, “There is another principle in our universe: if you pursue or want something, others are not willing to interfere.” (From “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun.) The Fa also stipulates in regard to cultivation that, “Nobody will force you or make you practice cultivation. It is your own business whether you practice cultivation. In other words, no one will interfere with it in terms of which path you take, what you want, or what you try to get. We can only advise people to be good.” (From “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun.) According to this law of the universe, the evil old forces have no right to make us give up cultivation! According to the law of the universe, the evil old forces have no right to interfere with our choice to cultivate in Falun Dafa. Their actions directly go against even the laws of the old universe. Besides, it is now the Fa-rectification period, and we are helping to rectify the cosmos and save all sentient beings, including the old forces. So this is all the more reason why they are not in a position to criticize us in any way!

The old forces’ interference with the Fa-rectification in the form of animal possession is a reflection of their concepts. In fact, it seems to me that their behavior does not in any way differ from that of the possessing animals. The old forces want to be rewarded for participating in the Fa-rectification, but they do not have the courage to descend to the human realm and directly participate in the Fa-rectification. Instead, they manipulate low-level, corrupt lives to commit every possible sort of bad deed, with an eye toward damaging the Fa-rectification. When the old forces think they succeed in damaging the Fa-rectification, they claim a reward for effectively “examining” and testing Dafa. When the old forces fail, they don’t see the harm they have caused by manipulating low-level creatures that as a result are destroyed in the Fa-rectification. They think that everything they do is always right. In “Spirit or Animal Possession” in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun, it says: “Though you find that some people practice qigong, their energy is actually obtained by the possessing spirits or animals.” Similarly, the old forces might be busy assisting in the Fa-rectification according to their own standards, but in fact they are possessed by the evilness within themselves.

The main reason why people are possessed by spirits and animals, and all levels of corrupt lives are manipulated by the old forces, is that they regard their pursuing minds and greedy desires as their own. In other words, they cannot distinguish their thoughts from evil interferences, or right from wrong. But the truth will soon be disclosed with the advent of the Fa-rectification in the human realm.

Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/23/18250.html