F G ALUN ONG (English Version) L H I ONGZHI 7th Translation Edition, 2016 CONTENTS Chapter I Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1. The Origins of Qigong ................................................................................................ 1 2. Qi and Gong ................................................................................................................ 3 3. Gong Potency and Supernatural Abilities ................................................................... 3 4. The Third Eye ............................................................................................................. 6 5. Qigong Treatments and Hospital Treatments ........................................................... 10 6. Buddhist Qigong and the Religion of Buddhism ...................................................... 11 7. Upright Cultivation Ways and Crooked Ways ......................................................... 13 Chapter II Falun Gong ................................................................................................... 17 1. The Law Wheel’s Function ....................................................................................... 17 2. The Law Wheel’s Configuration .............................................................................. 18 3. Characteristics of Falun Gong Cultivation ............................................................... 19 4. Cultivation of Both Mind and Body ......................................................................... 21 5. Directing With the Mind ........................................................................................... 24 6. Levels of Cultivation in Falun Gong ........................................................................ 25 Chapter III Cultivation of Character ........................................................................... 28 1. The Meaning of Character ........................................................................................ 28 2. Loss and Gain ........................................................................................................... 29 3. Practicing Zhen, Shan, and Ren All Together .......................................................... 31 4. Ridding Yourself of Jealousy .................................................................................... 32 5. Ridding Yourself of Attachments ............................................................................. 33 6. Karma ........................................................................................................................ 34 7. Provoking Demons [Through Practice] .................................................................... 38 8. A Person’s Underlying Base and Awakening Capacity ........................................... 39 9. A Clear and Still Mind .............................................................................................. 40 Chapter IV The Falun Gong Practice System .............................................................. 42 1. Buddha Stretching a Thousand Arms ....................................................................... 42 2. Falun Standing Stance............................................................................................... 49 3. Penetrating the Cosmic Extremes ............................................................................. 52 4. Falun Cosmic Orbit ................................................................................................... 55 5. Strengthening Supernatural Powers .......................................................................... 59 Basic Requirements and Points to Note for Falun Gong Practice ................................ 65 Chapter V Questions and Answers ............................................................................... 67 1. The Law Wheel and Falun Gong .............................................................................. 67 2. Exercise Principles and Methods .............................................................................. 70 3. Cultivating Your Character ....................................................................................... 84 4. The Third Eye ........................................................................................................... 88 5. Trials and Tribulations .............................................................................................. 93 6. Dimensions and Humankind ..................................................................................... 94 Chapter I Introduction In China, the qigong1 arts have a long history that dates back to ancient times. Chinese people thus have a natural advantage in practicing qigong. The two upright systems of qigong cultivation, the Buddhist system and the Daoist system, have made public many great methods of cultivation that before were taught in private. The Daoist ways of cultivation are unique, while the Buddhist system has its cultivation methods. Falun Gong2 is an advanced cultivation method of the Buddhist system. During this series of teachings, I will first adjust your body to a state suitable for advanced cultivation and then install a Law Wheel (fa-lun) and energy mechanisms in your body, and I will teach you our exercises. What’s more, I have Law Bodies (fa-shen) who will protect you. But your having only these things isn’t enough, as they can’t achieve the goal of developing gong3—you also need to understand the principles for cultivation at high levels. That is what this book will address. I am teaching the practice system at high levels, so I won’t discuss cultivation of this or that meridian,4 acupuncture point, or energy passage. I am teaching a great cultivation way, the Great Way for true cultivation to high levels. At first it might sound somewhat mysterious, but for dedicated qigong cultivators, if you can try to be attentive and learn from what you experience, you will discover all the wonders and intricacies it contains. 1. The Origins of Qigong Qigong as we know it today was not, in fact, originally called qigong. It originated from the solitary cultivation ways of the ancient Chinese people and from cultivation in religions. The two-character term, qi gong, is nowhere to be found in texts such as The Book of Elixir, the Daoist Canon, or the Tripitaka. During the course of our present human civilization’s development, qigong went through the period when religions were in their infancy; it existed before religions came into being. After religions formed, qigong came to have something of a religious flavor to it. Qigong’s original names were Great Cultivation Way of Buddha, and Great Cultivation Way of Dao. It had other names too, such as Nine-Fold Internal Alchemy, Way of Arhat, Vajra Meditation, etc. People now call it qigong so that it better suits our modern thinking and can be more easily popularized. It’s in fact a means expressly for cultivating the human body that we have in China. Qigong isn’t something invented by this civilization. It has quite a long history that dates back to ages ago. Then when did qigong come into being? Some say that qigong 1 (pronounced “chee-gong”) Explanation of the term follows in text. Note: This and all subsequent footnotes are the translators’ additions. 2 (“fah-lun gong”) “Falun” translates loosely as “Law Wheel,” and “Gong” as “practice,” “qigong,” or “energy.” 3 (“gong”) A special type of energy. 4 “Meridians” form a network of energy channels in the body said to be conduits of qi energy; they have an important place in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese thought. 1 has a history of three thousand years, and became quite popular during the Tang Dynasty. Some say it has a history of five thousand years and is as old as Chinese civilization. Some say that, judging from archaeological findings, it has a history of seven thousand years. I don’t regard qigong as something invented by modern man—its heritage predates history. From what investigations by people with supernatural abilities have found, the universe we live in is an entity that was remade after being exploded nine times. The planet we dwell on has been destroyed many times. Each time the planet was remade, the human race again began to multiply. We have now discovered that there are many things on the earth that date beyond our present civilization. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, humans evolved from apes, and civilization is no more than ten thousand years old. Yet archeological excavations of caves in the European Alps have yielded 250- thousand-year-old murals that exhibit a high degree of artistry—one better than what people are doing today. In the museum of the National University of Peru, there is a large rock on which a human figure is engraved who holds a telescope and is observing the stars. The engraving is more than thirty thousand years old. As we know, Galileo invented a 30X astronomical telescope in 1609, which was no more than three-hundred- some years ago. But how could there have been a telescope thirty thousand years ago? There is an iron pillar in India whose iron content is over ninety-nine percent. Even modern smelting technology can’t produce iron with such high purity; it had surpassed the level of modern technology. Then who created those civilizations? How could human beings—who might as well have been primitive creatures back then—have created these things? These discoveries have caught the attention of scientists worldwide. They are considered prehistoric since they prove inexplicable. The level of scientific achievement was different in each past time period. In some time periods it was quite high, surpassing that of modern man. But those civilizations were destroyed. So I would say that qigong wasn’t invented or created by modern people, but discovered and perfected by modern people. It’s part of prehistoric culture. Qigong is not exclusively a product of our country. It exists in foreign countries as well, but they don’t call it qigong. Western countries, such as the United States, Great Britain, and so on, call it magic. There is a magician in the U.S. who is a master of supernatural abilities, and he once performed the feat of walking through the Great Wall of China. When he was about to pass through the Wall, he used a white cloth as a cover, pressed himself against the Wall, and then proceeded to go through it. Why did he do that? Doing it that way would lead a lot of people to think of it as a magic show. It had to be done like that since he knew there are many people in China with great supernatural abilities. He was afraid they would interfere with him, so he covered himself before he went in. When coming out, he raised the cloth with one hand and walked out. As the saying goes, “Experts watch for tricks while laymen watch for excitement.” Doing it as he did the audience thought it was a show of magic. These abilities are called magic because they aren’t used for cultivating the human body, but instead for stage performances which showcase unusual things and entertain. From a low-level perspective, qigong can change the condition of the body, achieving the goals of healing and health. From a high-level perspective, qigong refers to the cultivation of a person’s innate body (ben-ti). 2 2. Qi and Gong The qi we talk about nowadays was called chee5 by ancient people. They are essentially the same, as both refer to the qi of the universe—a shapeless, invisible kind of matter that permeates the universe. Qi does not refer to air. The energy of this matter is activated in the human body through cultivation. Its activation changes the body’s physical condition and can have the effect of producing healing and health. Yet qi is merely qi—you have qi, he has qi, and one person’s qi can’t do much to dominate another’s qi. Some say that qi can fix health problems, or that you can emit qi towards someone to heal him. Putting it that way isn’t very scientific, as qi can’t heal people in the least. When a practitioner’s body still contains qi, it means that his or her body is not yet a Milk-White Body. That is, the person is still sick or injured. A person who has reached a higher level through cultivation does not emit qi. Instead, he or she emits a cluster of high energy. It’s a form of high-energy matter that manifests in the form of light, and its particles are fine and its density high. That is what gong is. Only it has the power to do things to an everyday person, and only with it can a person heal others. There’s a saying, “Broadly shines a Buddha’s light, setting everything right.” It means that people who truly cultivate carry immense energy in their bodies. Wherever those persons go, any abnormal condition within the area covered by their energy can be corrected and restored to normal. For instance, sickness in the body really is an abnormal bodily state, and the sickness will disappear after that state is corrected. More simply put, gong is energy. Gong has physical characteristics, and practitioners can experience and perceive its objective existence through cultivation. 3. Gong Potency and Supernatural Abilities (1) Gong Potency is Developed Through Character Cultivation The gong that truly determines the level of a person’s gong potency (gong-li) isn’t developed through performing qigong exercises. It is developed through the transformation of the form of matter called virtue (de), and through cultivation of character (xin-xing). The transformation process isn’t accomplished by “setting up a crucible and furnace to make an elixir (dan) from gathered chemicals,”6 as ordinary people think. Gong as we mean it is generated outside the body, and it begins in the lower half of the body. As your character improves, it grows upward in a spiral shape, and all of this is formed outside of your body. Upon reaching the crown of the head it then develops into a gong pillar. The height of the gong pillar determines the level of your gong. The gong pillar exists in a deeply hidden dimension, making it hard for the average person to see it. Supernatural abilities are strengthened by gong potency. The higher a person’s gong potency and level, the greater his or her abilities are and the easier to use. People with lower gong potency have weaker abilities; they find it harder to use them, and some are completely unusable. Supernatural abilities in and of themselves represent neither the 5 This term uses a different Chinese character than qi, but is pronounced the same way. 6 In the Daoist tradition, external alchemical processes have long served as metaphors to describe internal cultivation of the human body. 3 level of your gong potency nor the level of your cultivation. What determines your level is gong potency, rather than abilities. Some people cultivate in a “locked” mode, wherein their gong potency is rather high but they might have few abilities. Gong potency is the determining factor [when it comes to levels], it is developed through character cultivation, and it is what’s most important. (2) Supernatural Abilities are Not What Cultivators Pursue All practitioners are interested in abilities. Supernatural abilities are attractive to the general public and lots of people want to get some. Yet a person whose character is poor won’t manage to. Some abilities that everyday people might have include an open Third Eye (tian-mu), clairaudience, telepathy, precognition, etc. But not all of these abilities will appear during the stages of Gradual Enlightenment, as they vary with each individual. It’s not possible for everyday people to have certain abilities, such as the ability to transmute objects in this physical dimension—that isn’t something everyday people can have. Great abilities are developed only through cultivating after birth. Falun Gong was developed based on the laws of the universe, so all abilities that exist in the universe exist in Falun Gong. [How many of them a practitioner gets] depends on how well he does with his cultivation. The thought of gaining some abilities isn’t wrong, but, overly-intense pursuit is more than a normal thought, and it will have negative results. Someone at a low level would have little use for abilities, save for trying to use them to show them off to everyday people or hoping to become more powerful than others. If that is the case, it indicates precisely that the person’s character is not high and that it’s right not to give him or her abilities. Some abilities can be used to commit wrongdoing if they are given to people with poor character. Since the character of those people is not steady there’s no guarantee they won’t do something bad. On the other hand, any abilities that can be demonstrated or performed can’t change human society or alter the ways of everyday life. Real high-level abilities are not allowed to be brought out for show, because the impact and danger would be too great; for example, you could never perform the pulling down of a large building. Great abilities aren’t allowed to be used except by people with special missions, and those abilities can’t be revealed; this is within high-level masters’ control. All the same, some everyday people insist on having qigong masters perform, forcing them to display their abilities. People with abilities are reluctant to use them for show, since revealing them is off limits; displaying them would impact the way of society. People who really do have great virtue aren’t allowed to use their abilities in public. Some qigong masters feel awful during performances and want to cry afterward. Don’t force them to perform! Revealing those things is upsetting to them. A student brought a magazine to me. I felt disgusted the moment I read it. It said that an international qigong conference was to be held, and that people with supernatural abilities could participate in a contest; the conference was open to whoever had great abilities. After I read it I was upset for days. Abilities are not something that can be publicly displayed for competition. It’s a shame when people demonstrate them in public. Everyday people focus on practical things in the mundane world, but qigong masters need to maintain their dignity. What’s the motive behind wanting abilities? Wanting them reflects a practitioner’s realm of mind and pursuits. A person with impure pursuits and an unsteady mind is 4 unlikely to have great abilities. That’s because before you are fully enlightened, what you perceive to be good or bad is only based on the standards of this world. You can see neither the true nature of things nor the karmic connections among them. Fighting, yelling, and mistreatment among people are inherently caused by karmic connections. You can only cause more trouble than help if you can’t perceive these things. The laws of this world govern the gratitude and resentment, along with the right and wrong, of everyday people; practitioners shouldn’t concern themselves with those things. Before you achieve full Enlightenment, what you see with your eyes might not necessarily be the truth. When one person punches another, it might be that they are settling their karmic debts. Your involvement might hamper the resolution of those debts. Karma is a type of black matter that surrounds the human body. It has physical existence in another dimension and can transform into sickness or misfortune. Supernatural abilities exist in everyone, and the idea is that they need to be developed and strengthened through continual cultivation. You want to be a practitioner, but if you only pursue abilities, you are shortsighted and your mind isn’t pure. No matter what it is you want abilities for, your pursuit of them has selfish things mixed in that will definitely hinder your cultivation. The consequence is that you will never get abilities. (3) Handling Gong Potency Some practitioners haven’t practiced for very long, yet they want to give people treatments to try out their skills. When those of you without high gong potency extend your hand and try, you absorb into your own body a great deal of black, unhealthy, filthy qi that exists in the patient’s body. Since you can’t repel unhealthy qi and your body lacks a protective shield, you form a joint field with the patient; you can’t defend against unhealthy qi without high gong potency. The result is that you experience a great deal of discomfort. If no one looks after you, over the course of time you will accumulate sickness throughout your body. So someone who lacks high gong potency shouldn’t try to heal others. Only a person who has developed supernatural abilities and who has a certain level of gong potency can use qigong to treat others. Even though some people have developed abilities and are able to do healing, they are, when at a rather low level, in fact using their accumulated gong potency—their own energy—to do the healing. Since gong is both energy and an intelligent entity that isn’t easily stored up, you are actually depleting yourself of gong when you send it out. And with your release of gong, the gong pillar above your head shortens and depletes. It’s just not worth it. So I don’t endorse giving others treatments when your gong potency is not high. No matter how great the methods you use, you will still consume your own energy. All kinds of abilities will emerge when a person’s gong potency reaches a certain level. You need to be very cautious when using these abilities. For instance, a person has to use his Third Eye once it has opened, for it will close if he doesn’t ever use it. Yet he shouldn’t look through it frequently. Too much energy will be discharged if he looks through it too often. So does that mean you should never use it? Of course not. If we were never to use it, then what would be the use of our cultivating [it]? The question is when to use it. You can use it only when you have cultivated to a certain stage and are able to replenish yourself. When a cultivator of Falun Gong reaches a certain stage, the Law Wheel can automatically transform and replenish however much gong he or she releases. The Law Wheel automatically maintains a practitioner’s gong potency level, and the 5 gong won’t decrease for even a moment. This is a characteristic of Falun Gong. Not until that point is reached may abilities be used. 4. The Third Eye (1) Opening the Third Eye The Third Eye’s main passage is located between the middle of the forehead and the Shangen7 acupuncture point. The way everyday people see things with the naked eye works the same way as a camera does: The size of the lens, or pupil, is adjusted according to the distance of an object and the intensity of the light. Via the optic nerves, images then form on the pineal gland, which is located at the back of the brain. The ability of Penetrative Vision is simply the ability of the pineal gland to look directly out through the Third Eye. An average person’s Third Eye is closed, as his or her main passage is narrow and dark. There is no essential qi inside, no illumination. Some people cannot see, for their passages are blocked. To open the Third Eye, in our cultivation we either depend on outside force or on ourselves to unblock the passage. The shape of the passage varies with each individual, ranging from oval to round, rhombic to triangular. The better you cultivate, the rounder the passage will become. Second, your shifu8 gives you an eye; if you cultivate on your own, then you have to cultivate it yourself. Third, you need to have essential qi at the location of your Third Eye. We usually see things with our pair of eyes, and it is exactly this pair of eyes that blocks our channel to view other dimensions. Since they function as a shield, we can only see objects that exist in our physical dimension. Opening the Third Eye allows you to see without using this pair of eyes. You can also cultivate to have a True Eye after you reach a very high level. Then you can see with the True Eye of the Third Eye, or with the True Eye at the Shangen acupoint. According to the Buddhist system, every pore of the body is an eye—there are eyes all over the body. According to the Daoist system, every acupuncture point is an eye. The main passage is nonetheless located at the Third Eye, and it has to be opened first. In my classes, I plant in everyone things that can open the Third Eye. The results vary owing to differences in people’s physical qualities. Some people see a dark hole similar to a deep well. That means his or her Third Eye passage is dark. Others see a white tunnel. If objects can be seen in front of you, your Third Eye is about to open. Some see objects revolving, which are placed there by your shifu to open the Third Eye. You will be able to see once they drill the Third Eye open. Some people can see a large eye through their Third Eye, and they think it is a Buddha’s eye, but it’s actually their own eye. Those are usually people with a fairly good underlying base (gen- ji). According to our statistics, the Third Eye is opened for more than half of the attendees each time we give classes. One problem that might come up after the Third Eye is opened is that a person whose character isn’t high could be prone to using the Third Eye to commit wrongdoing. To prevent this problem, I open your Third Eye directly to 7 (“shahn-gun”) Located at the root of the nose. 8 (“shrr-foo”) A common Chinese term for a meditation or martial arts teacher, similar to “sensei” in Japanese. The word is composed of two parts, one meaning “teacher” and the other “father.” 6 the level of Wisdom Eyesight. Or in other words, to an advanced level that allows you to directly see scenes from other dimensions and to see things that appear during cultivation, allowing you to believe in them. That strengthens your confidence in cultivation. The character of people who have just started practicing hasn’t yet reached the level of extraordinary people. They are inclined to do wrong once they have supernormal things. Let’s give a playful example: If you were to walk along the street and come upon a lottery stand, you might be able to walk away with first prize. That won’t be allowed to happen—it’s just to illustrate the point. Another reason is, we are opening the Third Eye for a large number of people, so suppose every person’s Third Eye was opened at a lower level: Just imagine if everyone could see through the human body or see objects behind walls—could we still call this a human society? Human society would be badly disrupted, so it’s not allowed and not achievable. Furthermore, it wouldn’t do practitioners any good and would only foster attachments. So we won’t open the Third Eye for you at a low level. We will instead open it directly at a high level. (2) The Third Eye’s Levels The Third Eye has many different levels; at different levels it sees different dimensions. According to Buddhism there are five levels: Flesh Eyesight, Celestial Eyesight, Wisdom Eyesight, Law Eyesight, and Buddha Eyesight. Each level is subdivided into upper, middle, and lower levels. When someone is at or below the level of Celestial Eyesight he can observe only our material world. Only when someone is at or above the level of Wisdom Eyesight will other dimensions be observable. Those who have the ability of Penetrative Vision can see things accurately, with clarity better than that of a CAT scan. But what they can see is just in this physical world and doesn’t go beyond the dimension in which we exist; it doesn’t count as having reached an advanced level of Third Eye. The level of a person’s Third Eye is determined by the amount of his or her essential qi, as well as the width, brightness, and degree of blockage of the main passage. The internal, essential qi is critical in determining how thoroughly the Third Eye will open. It is particularly easy to open the Third Eye for children under the age of six. I needn’t even bother using my hand, as it opens once I start talking. That’s because children have not been influenced much by our physical world and they haven’t done many bad things in their lives. Their essential qi is well preserved. The Third Eye of a child over the age of six becomes increasingly difficult to open, owing to the increase of outside influences as they grow up. Specifically, unsound education, being spoiled, and turning immoral can make the essential qi dissipate. And all of it will disappear if a person reaches a certain point. A person whose essential qi is completely lost can recover it gradually through cultivation, but it takes a long period of time and arduous effort. So essential qi is extremely precious. I don’t recommend that a person’s Third Eye be opened at the level of Celestial Eyesight, because a practitioner with low gong potency will lose more energy looking at objects than he has accumulated through cultivation. The Third Eye might close again if too much of the essential energy is lost. Once it closes it won’t be easy to open again. So I usually open people’s Third Eye at the level of Wisdom Eyesight. No matter how clear or unclear a cultivator’s vision is, he or she will be able to see objects in other dimensions. Since people are affected by their innate qualities, some see clearly, some see things intermittently, and others see unclearly. But at a minimum, you will be able to 7 see light. That helps a cultivator progress toward high levels. Those who can’t see clearly can remedy it through cultivation. People who have less essential qi see only images in black and white through the Third Eye. The Third Eye of a person who has more essential qi can see scenes in color and in clearer form. The more the essential qi, the better the clarity. But every individual is different. Some people are born with the Third Eye open, while for others it might be tightly clogged. When the Third Eye is opening, the image is similar to the blooming of a flower, opening layer after layer. During your meditation you will first discover that there is illumination in the area of your Third Eye. At the beginning the illumination isn’t so bright, while later it turns red. The Third Eye of some people is tightly closed, so their initial physical sensations might be quite strong. Those people will feel the muscles around the primary passage and the Shangen acupoint tightening, as if they were being pressed and squeezed inward. Their temples and foreheads will start to feel like they are swelling and aching. Those are symptoms of the Third Eye opening. A person whose Third Eye opens easily can occasionally see certain things. During my classes some people unwittingly see my Law Bodies. The image disappears though when they try to look, for those people are then in fact using their physical eyes. When you see some things with your eyes closed, try to remain in that state of seeing, and you will gradually see things more clearly. If you want to look more closely, you will actually switch to your own eyes and use the optic nerves. Then you won’t see anything. The dimensions the Third Eye sees differ depending on the level of a person’s Third Eye. Some scientific research agencies fail to understand this principle, and it prevents some qigong experiments from reaching their expected outcomes. And from time to time experiments even yield the opposite results. For example, an institute designed a method to test supernatural abilities. They asked qigong masters to view the contents inside a sealed box. Because those masters’ Third Eye levels were different, their answers were different. The research staff then considered the Third Eye to be false and a bogus concept. Someone with a lower-level Third Eye usually achieves better results in that kind of experiment, because his Third Eye is opened at the level of Celestial Eyesight—a level suitable only for observing objects in this physical dimension. So people who don’t understand the Third Eye think that those people have the greatest abilities. All objects, organic and inorganic, appear in different shapes and forms in different dimensions. For example, as soon as a drinking glass is manufactured, in a different dimension an intelligent entity comes into existence. Moreover, prior to existing as that entity, it may well have been something else. When the Third Eye is at its lowest level, the person will see the glass. At a high level he or she will see the entity that exists in the other dimension. At an even higher level the person will see the material form that it had prior to the existence of that intelligent entity. (3) Remote Viewing After their Third Eye is opened, some people’s ability of Remote Viewing emerges, and they can see objects thousands of miles away. Each individual occupies dimensions of his own. In those dimensions he is as big as a universe. Within a certain particular dimension, he has a mirror in front of his forehead, though it’s invisible in our dimension. Everyone has a mirror, but the mirror of a non-practitioner faces inward. For practitioners the mirror flips slowly. Once it flips, the mirror can capture what the practitioner wants to 8