2012 International Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital

Li Hongzhi

July 14, 2012 ~ Washington, D.C.

(All in attendance stand and warmly applaud.)

Good morning! (Disciples say, “Good morning, Master!”) (Long, continuous applause from the disciples) Let’s be seated.

We have two major Fa conferences a year, and both take place in the U.S.—on the East Coast, to be specific. (Master laughs) I sometimes think about how if you don’t get a lot out of a Fa conference, it won’t have been worth it. That’s because you spend a great deal on your tickets and your travel. The reason I don’t want to hold too many large-scale Fa conferences is precisely because I want to reduce your financial burdens as much as possible. But be that as it may, a number of things can indeed be addressed through Fa conferences, since after the conferences there are project meetings, and for those projects it’s a precious opportunity to come together. By sitting down together you can really come up with practical ways of resolving things, and that’s great.

Judging from the situation at present, as you may be aware, the whole world’s attitude towards Falun Gong has been undergoing a complete change. When the persecution first began, the media all around the world were reiterating the CCP’s evil, suppressive propaganda. It amounted to helping its propaganda efforts, and resulted in the whole world viewing Falun Gong in light of the lies imposed by the Party. Many Dafa disciples outside of China at that time were students and didn’t have a lot of worldly experience, and so, while not knowing how to do things, they took action while at the same time learning how to do them. On their own they established media for clarifying the truth, launched a variety of projects for that purpose, and persevered in getting the truth out and managed to turn around the malicious lies that the CCP had created as a part of its suppression. Just remarkable. But that said, judging from things overall, if we hope to have the world’s people truly understand Falun Gong, then we still have a ways to go. Just think about it: otherwise, wouldn’t all those people probably be cultivating? The fact is, many people still regard us as some faith that is being persecuted; as some group that has political grievances; or as some entity that is at odds ideologically with the evil CCP. Human beings have human thinking, after all. Whatever the case, people will ultimately come to recognize what Falun Gong is about. With Dafa disciples doing all that they are, here in human society it has seemed as though each step has been difficult and each door hard to open. But that is in keeping with the overall forward progression of the Fa-rectification; in this world at the surface things will not appear to happen in leaps and bounds. That’s because with Earth being such a limited size, if things were to progress too quickly, [things would be done here] before the Fa-rectification were finished. The overall process has a corresponding relationship like this. So, when people truly arrive at such a clear understanding [of what Falun Gong is about], it will mean that everything has progressed to the final point. Actually, it is not that far away. That’s something you can tell from the current state of affairs. The evil can’t hold out much longer, and neither can the persecution.

A human being at the surface level has a body that was given to him by his parents, and this body grows with the consumption of food. That’s all there is to it. A human being, at the surface, is just like an article of clothing. What is really at work is the portion of the person that’s within, that is, what is in other dimensions. None of this can really be perceived by people at the surface. They only judge things by people’s actions. The origins of a person’s various thoughts, on the other side, are very complex, with what’s seen at the surface having the influence of all sorts of beings mixed in. That’s how it is, and it is extremely complex. And the persecution of Dafa disciples is even less straightforward. A human being can’t do much of anything. [What has happened] is due to evil in other dimensions playing a guiding role. At present, those evil beings are being eliminated, are being progressively cleared out. You’ve seen this for yourselves. Before, when they were doing evil all over the world with the utmost arrogance, in my view many governments were frightened. If [the CCP] were to try to spread its terror throughout the whole world now, it wouldn’t have the strength for it anymore. Nor would it be able to even think about doing that. That’s because as the Fa-rectification ceaselessly forges ahead, [the evil] is being eliminated rapidly dimension by dimension, layer by layer. It resembles how things are with a living being: it has a form of existence at each and every plane. For a being to be powerful, its roots must reach deep and its origin must be great; or in other words, its level is likely to be high. So, when those things are being eliminated step by step, and increasingly it is approaching the surface, with its roots becoming more and more shallow, when at the end there is nothing left but a human being, it amounts to very little. So that’s the case with the evil. It is being eliminated and eliminated, non-stop, in other dimensions, progressing right up to the surface. And that explains why things are what they are at present. The evil no longer has the strength to do what it used to do around the world.

And this isn’t just true around the world. Even in China it could no longer launch a Red Terror as it once did, even if it tried. But, have their institutions, organizations, and the whole setup disappeared? No, they still exist, or at least it appears that they are still there. However, these things are controlled by factors behind the scenes. If the positive factors behind the scenes have the upper hand, then the evil won’t be able to muster up much evil at the surface; if behind the scenes the evil factors have the upper hand, then it will be evil at the surface as well. In other words, throughout the whole process of the Fa-rectification pushing forward, the evil is being eliminated in great amounts and at the surface people are changing. I’ve always talked about something, namely, how when the persecution of Falun Gong was at its worst, the entire earth was covered by evil. The density was great, and every living thing had bad things affixed to it—even the grass did. When you were walking along it seemed like the grass was trying to trip you. Everything was trying to get at you. It was so evil. But now everything has changed, for all of those things have been cleared out and don’t exist anymore. So the environment has changed, and people are becoming rational now. Since people have a side of them that’s aware and, along with this, people have something that reaches far back—their deep-seated, innate foundation (genji)—and because most people came here to obtain the Fa, came for the Fa, and that side of them that is aware has become stronger and stronger, thus, as you clarify the truth you sometimes hear a person express an understanding that is quite high. What they say is nothing like what an average person could say. And especially the things that are said when someone accepts the truth about Dafa—in no way could your typical, ordinary person come up with such things. They sound like cultivators. What that means is, the person’s knowing side is at work now. The evil factors are fewer now and cannot control people. Only a very few remain, and they are contracting and being concentrated around certain strategic places and still doing evil and holding out. At the beginning they could act wildly all around the world, whereas later they could carry on only inside that political and legal system [in China], such as in the prisons, in the Public Security bureaus, in the State Security offices, in the forced labor camps—only inside that system. Now, they can no longer control even that system itself. [The factors] are now contracting around the prisons and brainwashing centers, and they don’t have much strength left. Even Beijing is now hard for them to hold on to.

As you know, the evil Party now senses that it could collapse at any time. It’s not that I am the one saying this. They are saying it themselves, and so are others. But what of the military, the police, and all the authorities—are they not all still in the Party’s hands? And isn’t the military still massive? So, why do they feel that way, then? Although on the surface its form and organizational structure still seem sound, the evil factors behind those things are no more. And the ultimate reason that the regime has continued to exist has been those most evil factors. As they are being constantly eliminated, and becoming fewer and fewer, [the Party] knows that it won’t be around for long, that it’s done for. That’s what it senses.

When the persecution of Falun Gong began, Master said that the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong would lead to its own downfall. As you’ve seen, they are heading straight for that. But whatever the case, as Dafa disciples we must not let up even though circumstances are changing. Don’t think that because circumstances are easing up that you can let up in your cultivation. You can’t do that. Be sure not to forget that you are a cultivator. It is only because you have cultivation as your foundation that you can go and try to save people. Only with a foundation in cultivation and righteous thoughts that have grown strong will you succeed in saving people and complete your undertaking. So you must not neglect your own cultivation. This will always hold true.

There are some people who aren’t that diligent, or new students, who are thinking, “Oh, so the evil Party is about to fall, and Falun Gong is going to rule.” I can tell you that, in terms of political power, that won’t be the case. We don’t want political power. We have had many disciples who, when they first began cultivating, had the thought, “I’ve obtained the Fa. ‘Having heard the Dao at dawn, I can pass away at dusk.’” They were saying, “Since I’ve learned Dafa, I wouldn’t be interested in being President even if I were given the chance. I want to do cultivation.” In other words, as cultivators we want to forsake worldly gain. Cultivators don’t seek such things. What we seek is to get rid of worldly attachments. In the context of cultivation at the individual level, we should just focus on cultivating ourselves and returning to our own true homes. The human world is just a place created expressly for the Fa-rectification during the cosmos’s final hour, and it is not something that the cosmos originally had, nor is it something essential to the cosmos. I’m speaking in terms of the past. If it exists in the future, it will be because this place built up mighty virtue during the Fa-rectification. And perhaps it will serve as one plane of existence in the cosmos of the future. So, one’s true home is not here. Then as for the vast array of sentient beings that came here to obtain the Fa, however lost they may have gotten here in this world, their ultimate purpose for coming here was to obtain this Fa.

Since the cosmos isn’t suitable anymore, neither are sentient beings, and everything is a mess. That is to say, everyone is amidst it, and no matter how high is the level of a sentient being in this cosmos, he is adding fuel to the fire and making things unsuitable. What this means, then, is that all sentient beings in the cosmos are guilty and must go down together with it. If it weren’t for this Fa-rectification, that would be the case. Then, if these beings are to be saved, they must, amidst ordeals and in the most trying of settings, recover their original nature and manage to find the Dafa that can liberate them. But that is really hard. As you know, many people turn a blind eye as we canvass the streets passing out flyers and invite people to do cultivation. And moreover, people have been made fearful as a result of the many lies the evil CCP has disseminated through its propaganda and as it has sabotaged things in various ways. And that’s not all. Something also holds true around the world, namely, that many people will, if they do truly wish to start cultivation, encounter blockage from the notions that they have formed since birth. That’s for sure, and so they won’t be able to enter. And so in this circumstance it is again hard to save people. But with that said, [ultimately] these ordeals are people’s own, and if Dafa disciples can manage to save them, then with that alone, the disciples are extraordinary. That’s because for those lives to obtain the Fa they have to meet with major challenges, and only then, if they can obtain it under those circumstances, will it count. With everything no longer being suitable, a person is considered amazing only if he can do that. He must, amidst the hardships and the suffering, and under the influence of an array of karma and notions accumulated over many lifetimes, which serve to bury him, manage to recognize the Fa, cultivate, and return, as well as manage to realize what’s happening when Dafa is saving him or her. It really is hard. These are the circumstances that we are faced with. And that is why Dafa disciples not only have to cultivate themselves well, but also fulfill their historic mission: to save sentient beings.

None of the cultivation forms in the past were the same as that of Dafa; Fa-rectification is an undertaking that the cosmos has never seen before. As you all know, I don’t recognize anything arranged by the old forces. When I brought up their interference and in the end they had no grounds on which to argue, they claimed that, “But that’s the only way we know how.” What did they mean by that? We’re familiar with how the Christians went through three hundred years of persecution, and it was only after that, after having proved themselves, that they were recognized; Buddhism, similarly, had to go through endless ordeals and experience several major travails for its Dharma. So each has had to go through something of that sort, and thus [the old forces] claim that that’s the only way they know. They are simply old beings, and at no point, even up to the time of their being dealt with, can they really understand Dafa. They have indeed regarded the Fa-rectification as something good and which can save them, so they’ve gotten involved on the basis of their notions and they just won’t back off—no matter how one may reason with them. And so they have become an obstacle to Fa-rectification. Moreover, they arranged an entire system of things that none of them could free themselves from. In the end, they went about things as if numb, just doing what they set out to. Anyway, for sentient beings all of this has been terribly difficult. And that includes for gods. It’s very difficult for them to remain, for they too are faced with all of this and they all understand the Fa according to their own realms. That is the inherent difficulty for them. All know about this affair, but none of them could really be sure of whether it would succeed or how massive it is. Thus each has done what it is capable of, making for massive impediments for me.

Anyway, you have all seen what the path that we’ve walked has been like. If the Fa-rectification didn’t succeed, if it wasn’t done up to standard and was not accepted by sentient beings, or if Master wasn’t satisfied with it, then it wouldn’t matter how powerful Master is: if it couldn’t manage to make sentient beings reach via Fa-rectification the degree of purity required, or if some things were to go wrong along the way, I will tell you, this earth would be destroyed, Fa-rectification would be no more, and there would be no matter of saving sentient beings. Danger would abound. But that didn’t materialize. However, such things have in fact transpired. You are aware that certain celestial bodies were on course to collide with the earth, but it turned out they missed it; and there were many other disastrous calamities that were supposed to befall the earth, but which didn’t happen. In other words, Fa-rectification has made it to this point today—despite whatever close calls with danger have occurred or whatever ordeals we have gone through, we have handled things correctly and are now at the final point. (Disciples applaud enthusiastically) In other words, the path we’ve walked has been right—and part of that involves how remarkable Dafa disciples have been. At your Fa-conferences you discuss many instances of how Dafa disciples have made it through as they cultivate, save sentient beings, and validate the Fa. In fact, that is the path traveled by millions upon millions, such a great number, of Dafa disciples. The ordeals, xinxing tests, and the rigors of cultivation that you have met with were all part of your walking your own paths and successfully establishing yourselves. Of course, success for Dafa disciples is not simply a matter of self-liberation, and it was not for themselves that they came here. Rather, they shoulder the mission of saving sentient beings. Meanwhile, even the world’s people who want to obtain the Fa are on a mission—it’s not just for themselves, either. Rather, they are responsible for the survival of their sentient beings. They descended to this world to save those sentient beings of theirs, and it was on this account that they came.

That is something simply remarkable. Regardless of what people may now think, as I just indicated, people must all at some point become clear. And not only must they become clear—what they are going to experience and all of what they are going to face in the future will be utterly shocking. When I was just speaking about “the truth,” a great deal was encompassed by that term. When we use it nowadays, we’re referring to how we tell people about the evil’s cooking up lies in order to persecute Falun Gong; to what the wicked CCP is really all about; to why Falun Gong is being persecuted; and then there’s the topic of what exactly Falun Gong is, which people are talking about, and this truth is hard for people to grasp. But whatever the case, in the future there will be many, many things that people haven’t known, or have wanted to know, or that they believed to be “right” but that were actually wrong, and many truths, will all be revealed in full. What people don’t believe in will be shown to them. People are truly going to experience an unforgettable, massive change as never seen before in all of history.

When history is marching ahead and a path is extending forward, no one can block what the heavens have decided. During that process you should do your utmost to save more people and enable them to remain. Indeed, I tell you as Dafa disciples that you still really need to save more people, for I had arranged for this to happen: I will have the people of the future repay Dafa—that is, the people who survive—and they are going to create for Dafa an era of the greatest glory, a time of unparalleled magnificence. So that is something to be done by human beings. But what could be accomplished if only a handful of them remained? It would be so dull. (Everyone laughs, Master laughs) So we have to save more people.

Regardless of what the situation may be right now, and regardless of what all of those many sentient beings may say, Master has a tight rein on all that’s happening here, and nothing is going to go off track. When a certain few people exhibit problems in their understanding of the Fa, those are individual matters of cultivation, and the larger state of things will remain unchanged. For you, it is all about saving people and fulfilling your historic mission. This way Dafa disciples will retain mighty virtue and meet with full success in cultivation. Of course, there are plenty of things that are problematic, but Master doesn’t want to say more about that today. However, sometimes when the words are on the tip of my tongue I do want to say a thing or two. (Disciples all applaud)

Cultivation is different for Dafa disciples inside and outside of China. And in fact, whether you’re in China or outside, wherever you are, cultivation is different for each Dafa disciple. I have said that there are no role models, no examples, and that at most one can draw upon others’ experiences and see how they handled things while having righteous thoughts. If you try to do things by mimicking what they did, or blindly do whatever they did, then you are wrong. Each person is traveling his own path, and each is gaining enlightenment from Dafa as to what will one day be his own Fa. The cultivating and clarifying of the truth that mainland China students are doing amidst ordeals and terrifying pressure, that is something that you decided upon in history and what you wanted at that time. In addition, this was made possible by many predestined elements, so it had to be done this way. Then for the Dafa disciples outside of China, [their circumstances] are also something that has resulted from predestined elements. Where they would cultivate and where they would carry things out—it’s different for them. For the students in mainland China, the pressure under the Red Terror really is enormous. Outside of China, however things may seem, the fact is that the pressure is far less than that in the mainland. From what I’ve seen in the U.S., all students who have come out of the mainland have taken half a year before they could recover. They’re afraid just walking down the street. (Everyone laughs) That’s because of the psychological pressure from the Red Terror (Master laughs), and that substance has yet to be eliminated. When they meet with people they don’t really dare to say much, as if they were still living in that other setting. But in reality, things are completely different.

So in other words, things are done differently here in this setting. Also, Dafa disciples’ living conditions tend to be better outside of China. Now of course, speaking of living conditions, if Dafa disciples have that allotted fortune then they’re free to enjoy it. Master isn’t directing you to be poor the way the evil CCP would have it. So, life and conditions are generally much better for Dafa disciples outside of China. That’s the reality. So in comparison, the majority of students in China tend to have things a bit harder. But you shouldn’t draw comparisons, talking about how life over there [outside China] is so easy and how over here one suffers so much. This is your path (Master laughs), while that is their path. The students outside of China are outstanding, too. They have managed to turn things around internationally, and at the same time effectively restrained the evil and reduced the pressure on Dafa disciples in China. If it were otherwise, think about it: when that evil was at its most wicked, at the height of its frenzy, it would have been bold enough to do anything, wouldn’t it?

That said, though, owing to the climate of terror over in China some students have not, while facing that pressure, managed to study the Fa that well and have not been that diligent. It’s possible, then, that they have committed certain mistakes under the evil’s pressure and taken a detour on their path. But as long as this affair has not ended, all of that is part of your cultivation path. In cultivation you will inevitably not pass certain tests well and will have to go through them anew, or you won’t handle certain ordeals well and will have to meet with them again. That’s cultivation. Sailing along with no obstacles along your way, with nothing that can block you at all—I haven’t seen it happen that way. That would mean that the tests arranged for you were arranged in vain, it would be like a divine being doing cultivation, not a human being. So, each person will have different tribulations in his or her cultivation, for sure, and encounter different things. And some things will even be handled very poorly. I recently heard again that there are evil people coming up with things on the Internet, claiming that people who went astray, who did wrong, or who did things that they shouldn’t have can pay money to their website and, after paying some amount, be absolved of their sin, that their mistake will no longer count. And people have actually paid them money. I heard that someone even sold his car to pay, and that some have really paid a lot. They are that confused. Is it that the mental pressure has clouded their heads that much, that the pressure is so great that they’ve lost their sense of reason?

Dafa disciples have to cultivate on the basis of the Fa and do the three things of Dafa disciples well, and only then can one walk one’s path correctly and wash oneself clean of the times when one fell short. In actuality, we don’t need to think about any “washing oneself clean.” When you haven’t passed a test in cultivation well, then just make sure to handle well the things that lie ahead and do well the next time you encounter that test, and that’s it. Some people think that [their failing that test] is a stain upon them, and they really feel terribly burdened by it. But isn’t that another attachment? Evil factors are capitalizing on precisely that attachment of yours. That evil website, that secret agent, will seize upon precisely that human mentality of yours to swindle you, have you lose some money, and to make you trip up again. Yet you still aren’t waking up. The fact that those evil people can do such things—to do evil online—owes to your being manipulated by the old forces and their wanting to have you suffer financial loss. And if you still don’t wake up, they’ll bankrupt you completely and see if you can come to your senses. As I’ve said, the old forces will do such things, regardless of whether Master is making use of them or whether he doesn’t accept them. In the time before the Fa-rectification arrives, in this interval, they’re doing evil things. They will be wiped out alongside the others in the places where Fa-rectification sweeps through.

As for the Fa-rectification of the cosmos, to me the process is quick. I’ll give an illustration. The cosmos is of one large, overall time, and Fa-rectification entails it being completely cleansed in the time it takes for the swipe of a hand. That’s really how it is. But, there are countless universes within this massive cosmic body, and countless cosmic bodies of varying sizes as well as countless planet-particles, with each one of those, large or small, having its own time on it. While I am saying that the greater cosmos is handled in the time it takes for the swipe of a hand, in some extremely slow dimensions it might equate to a process that’s hundreds of millions of years long; on some planets it amounts to a process just decades long; while here on earth, in the human world, it manifests as a process just over a dozen years or so long. In fact, it takes just an instant. But, in that instant the old forces have been exploiting the times of differing lengths, doing what they want to do in different dimensions. But Master is, conversely, using all of what they do to bring about Dafa disciples’ success; were things otherwise, I would use other means. They have already done what they have, so I am beating them at their own game. They have become an old force, and this old force has acted as a demon for the Fa-rectification of the cosmos. Nevertheless, if Dafa disciples don’t do well, the damage is huge. So, regardless of whether [the old forces] are being acknowledged or not: if you really do stumble, then you have indeed stumbled; and if you really do well, then you have indeed done well.

So, whatever the case, I’m telling you to cultivate in a confident and dignified manner, be a bit more rational, and make sure to measure everything with the Fa. Dafa disciples, however things may go for you and whatever the situation may be, regardless of whether you’ve done poorly or well, try to do well at the three things of Dafa disciples—do them well in the time ahead—and in doing so you will be constantly cultivating, moving forward, and making success for yourselves. And through this process of constant cultivation, you will know for yourself the things that I’ve talked about and be able to focus on how to do well in the future. Don’t carry around any baggage from the past. Those kinds of things are the product of human thinking, and will be seized upon by the evil.

Of course, there are a lot of things I’d like to talk about. The two Fa conferences are close together, however, and speaking more wouldn’t do. There are still some things that I can’t put too explicitly. If I were to break down for you all of those things while you are cultivating, there wouldn’t be anything for you to cultivate and you wouldn’t have a path to walk, right? Since that is the case, you still have to walk the path for yourselves and cultivate on your own. Master can only speak about these things in general terms. Anyway, I’m very happy to see you. As Dafa disciples you have come through the tribulations and made it to this point today, and I can see what awaits you in the future. Thank you! (Disciples applaud long and enthusiastically)