Every Falun Gong practitioner is a member of society, and each has his own job or career. It’s only that they go to the park to do Falun Gong exercises for half an hour or an hour every morning, and then they go to work.
- Essentials For Further Advancement II ("Some Thoughts of Mine")
You all need to have a job, an environment, even a family, and plenty of relatives in the society of ordinary people. Every aspect of these things is a reflection of our ability to conform to the conventions of ordinary people’s society. At the same time, they create good opportunities for us to cultivate and they provide us with an environment for cultivation, for you are cultivating among ordinary people.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland (September 1998)
We do not ask you to become monks and nuns. As our practice is spread more widely in the future, those practitioners of ours who practice cultivation among everyday people should not all be turned into quasi-monks. It is not allowed for every Falun Dafa practitioner to become this way.
- Zhuan Falun[1] (Lecture Six)
Each Practitioner Must Make Their Own Conclusions
You went through a process of serious thinking at the beginning of this, but no matter what, that’s not to be considered wrong, as you were given the opportunity to think: what kind of person is Li Hongzhi? Is this Fa[2] righteous?
- Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference (October 2000)
Falun Gong Requires Addressing Problems Through Gradual
Self-Improvement.
Certainly, it will not be easy for you to immediately lose all sorts of everyday people’s desires and reach the standard of a true practitioner, as it takes time to make it. When you hear me say that it takes time, you might say that Teacher has told us to take time, and so you will take time in doing so. That will not be permitted! You should be strict with yourself, though we allow you to improve gradually. If you could do it all at once today, you would be a Buddha today. Thus, it is not realistic. You will be able to achieve this gradually.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Four)
Question: I could never completely eliminate my own attachments. I’m really worried about this, but I’m never able to do well.
Teacher: Study the Fa more, study the Fa more. (Teacher laughs) There’s no magic pill. “Let’s take a pill and the attachments will go away.” (Everyone laughs) Actually, Dafa’s mighty power is even more effective than some cure-all magic pill. Of course, you’re all busy right now and have to do all kinds of things, there are a lot of things to do, and there are household chores, jobs, and other responsibilities to attend to. But you have to always cultivate yourself, so you still need to study the Fa.- Teaching the Fa at the Atlanta Fa Conference (November 2003)
The Meditation Requires the Person to Maintain a Completely Conscious and Clear Mind.
We’ve said that your Main Consciousness has to be aware, for this practice cultivates you yourself. You should progress with an alert mind. How do we perform the meditation? We require that each of you must know that you are doing the exercise there, no matter how deeply you meditate. You absolutely should not enter into a state in which you’re aware of nothing. So what particular state will occur? As you sit there you will feel wonderful and very comfortable, as if you were sitting inside an eggshell.
- Falun Gong[3] (Part II, Chapter III)
Falun Gong Has No Membership Rosters and People Are Free to
Leave at Any Time.
I’ll tell everyone a principle. All of you probably know about my consistent way of doing things. I have said that no form of religion will ever be practiced; I don’t write down your names one by one in a membership roster like those of everyday people. We have no formalities, no office, and nothing tangible. Anything tangible can induce human attachments and so has no place in cultivation practice. .... Today we have such an enormous Fa that we certainly dare to open things up and leave everything up to you—only your heart matters. I said that I’ve opened a huge door. In fact, you don’t know that there is no door at all. It’s completely open—only your heart matters!
- Lecture at the First Conference in North America (March 1998)
We don’t have various provisions that people have to follow, as religions do, nor do we have any temples, churches, or religious rituals. People can come to learn or leave as they please, and we have no membership rosters.
- Essentials For Further Advancment II ("Some Thoughts of Mine")
I am not saying that everyone has to study Falun Dafa. If you do not study Falun Dafa and have received true teachings from other qigong practices, I will approve of it as well.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture One)
If you want to learn it, you learn it. If you do not want to learn it, you may leave. We will not harm anyone. If you say, "I do not want to learn it anymore," it is all right if you don't. If you want to learn it and to practice cultivation, we will be responsible to you and guarantee to do so.
- Lecture in Sydney (August 1996)
Falun Gong Teaches that One Should Treat All Others With Compassion and Understanding.
We practice Zhen-Shan-Ren[4], and you would have even less compassion so to speak of. So you should not be like him or become really upset with him, despite his putting you in this awful situation where you cannot even raise your head. Instead of being angry with him, you should thank him in your heart and thank him sincerely. An ordinary person may think this way: "Isn’t that being like Ah Q? [Foolish Character in a Chinese Novel]" I am telling you that it is not so.
.... Think about it, everyone: You are practitioners. Shouldn’t you be required to meet a high standard? The principles of everyday people should not apply to you, right? As a practitioner, isn’t what you get something of high levels? Accordingly, you must follow the high-level principles. If you do what that person did, aren’t you the same as he?- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Four)
Falun Gong Teaches To
Abide By the Laws Under Which One Lives.
All Falun Dafa practitioners must strictly observe the laws of their countries of residence. Any conduct that violates a country’s policies or regulations would directly oppose the merits and virtues of Falun Dafa. The individual concerned is responsible for the violation and all of its consequences.
- Falun Gong (Appendix IV)
The Fa has been passed on to you—actually, my goal is to pass this Fa on to you. If I watch someone in his cultivation forever and I’m in front of you but you don’t follow what I say when you do things, what’s the use? It’s useless.
- Suggestions Given at the Beijing Falun Dafa Assistants Meeting (December 1994)
When you’re supposed to vote, just go vote, that’s not a problem. .... As individual practitioners you can support whoever you’d like.
- Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference (February 2003)
Even though you practice and your spouse might not, it is not permitted for you to get a divorce because of the practice.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Six)
What would happen if no one got married anymore? .... Since the Fa has been taught this way, our cultivation has to conform to the way of this society. .... Humankind can’t cease to exist. But it doesn’t matter if you as an individual don’t want to get married. That’s a personal matter, and it isn’t wrong.
- Lectures in the United States (March 1997)
Falun Gong's Founder Asks Practitioners Not To Worship
Him.
Accordingly, please do not come to me for the formality of worshipping the master. As long as you truly practice cultivation, I will treat you this way.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Three)
I've actually made clear since I first taught the Fa that people can address me in whatever way: you can call me by my name, call me Teacher, call me Master--whatever is fine. Master isn't a stickler for these things.... It's up to you, and you can address me however you like. But be sure not to address me as 'Buddha.'
- Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference (February 2005)
Through Improvement of Moral
Character and Exercises, Body Is Purified
There is no precondition for practicing cultivation, and one should practice cultivation if one wants to. Yet some people’s bodies have illnesses, and some people carry disorderly messages in their bodies. Some people have never practiced qigong. There are also people who have practiced it for several decades and still wander about at the level of qi [type of energy] but without making progress in cultivation. ....
What should be done about this? We will purify their bodies and enable them to practice cultivation toward high levels. It will be done, however, only for practitioners who come to genuinely practice cultivation; your simply sitting here does not mean that you are a practitioner. These things will be provided as long as you fundamentally change your thinking, and it is not limited to just these. Later on you will understand what I have given everyone. We do not talk about healing illness here, either. Rather, we talk about holistically adjusting practitioners’ bodies to enable you to practice cultivation. With an ill body you cannot develop gong [cultivation energy] at all. Therefore, you should not come to me for curing illnesses, and neither will I do such a thing. The primary purpose of my coming to the public is to guide people to high levels, genuinely guiding people to high levels.- Zhuan Falun (Lecture One)
No Money Can Be Charged For The Practice
The first [requirement] is that you cannot collect a fee. We have given you so many things, but they are not for you to make a fortune or seek fame. Rather, they are for saving you and enabling you to practice cultivation. .... When you spread it, you should not pursue fame and personal gain, but should serve others voluntarily. All practitioners are doing it this way nationwide, and assistants from different regions have also set this example themselves. If you want to learn our practice, you may come as long as you want to learn it. We can be responsible to you and will not charge you a penny.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture One)
All local Falun Dafa Assistance Centers are civic organizations for genuine cultivation practice, are only for organizing and assisting cultivation activities, and are neither to be run as economic enterprises nor managed using the methods of administrative organizations. No money or possessions are to be kept.
- Falun Gong (Appendix I)
The assistants should teach the exercises to others voluntarily. Collecting a fee or accepting gifts is forbidden. Practitioners should not seek fame or profit, but merit and virtue.
- Falun Gong (Appendix III)
Forcing Someone To Learn Is Not Part Of Falun Gong
I think people with predestined relationships will want to learn [the Fa] once they hear about it. And people with no predestined relationship won’t want to learn, no matter how you try to persuade them. There’s one point to make: Be sure you don’t drag people over, and don’t force people to learn it when they don’t want to. [If you say:] “You’re my friend, you’re my family member—you must learn, you have to learn,” not only will they not believe it, but when they come they will say bad things and play a negative role. So everyone, please make absolutely sure you pay attention to this.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe (May 1998)
You can talk to them if you are their lay patron, friend, or relative. If they want to cultivate, they will. And if they don’t want to cultivate, let them be. We really shouldn’t drag people: “Come cultivate, it’s really a shame if you don’t! You have to come with me!” The heart can’t be changed by personal or emotional ties. People’s hearts have to be stirred of their own accord.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland (September 1998)
What do you mean by "they don't accept Dafa"? That they don't want to learn it? If they won't learn it, that is fine. No one is forcing them to learn it. Only an evil cult would force somebody to learn its things, and it won't let people out even if they wish to leave. In Dafa, however, we don't go in for those things. If you want to learn it, go ahead. And if you don't want to, that's fine.
- Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference (February 2005)
Besides, let me tell everyone that you should also be careful with your approach in promoting this Fa. If one is interested in it and comes to study it, then you are also building up beneficence. It is also a matter of boundless beneficence. However, there is one point. If one does not want to learn it and you try to make him do it, dragging him here to learn it, I will say that it is not good. Because if he does not want to cultivate Buddhahood, a Buddha cannot do anything for him either. What one wants to attain or pursue is up to the person himself. You may tell him and offer a word of kind advice, but you cannot impose on him. I am telling everyone that we do not make anyone to come to learn it.
- Lecture in Sydney (August 1996)
Questioning and Doubt Are Part of Cultivation
At a certain point in time, you will be made unable to discern clearly whether something is true, whether your gong exists, whether you can practice cultivation and make it, or whether there are Buddhas and if they are real. In the future, these situations will surface again to give you this false impression and make you feel as though they do not exist and are all false—it is to see whether you are determined.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Six)
You have many questions after reading the book the first time: “Why is this? Why is that?” But when you read it a second time, you will find that all of your questions are resolved—it can answer all of them. Yet you’ll have new questions, since cultivation is a process of ascending. The new questions that emerge will be higher than the questions and answers you had when you read the book for the first time. When you read the book for the third time, you will notice that all of the questions you had and couldn’t understand during the second time are resolved. And if you keep reading, it will continue to be this way.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe (May 1998)
You went through a process of serious thinking at the beginning of this, but no matter what, that’s not to be considered wrong, as you were given the opportunity to think: what kind of person is Li Hongzhi? Is this Fa righteous?
- Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference (October 2000)
Each Practitioner Must Decide What They Want To Do
Out of Their Own Initiative, Not Pressure
How can one possibly be forced to cultivate? You cannot be made and forced to pursue cultivation. It is up to you to truly progress upward. No one can do anything about it if you do not want to progress upward yourself.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Six)
We can only advise people to do what’s good, and can’t coerce others into anything. We cannot force them. What people want to obtain is their own business. It doesn’t count if they’re coerced into doing something, it only counts if they do it themselves and if they cultivate themselves.
- Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference (March 1999)
Whether to cultivate or not is up to the person himself, it’s all up to the person to decide for himself. If a person wants to cultivate then he can cultivate, and if he doesn’t want to cultivate then he doesn’t. You can only offer him some good advice... I’d never force anybody, and Dafa disciples wouldn’t force anybody either. What I’m doing stems completely from compassion, and it’s totally for the good of all beings.
- Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference (November 2003)
Question: How can we help newer students in China step forward?
Teacher: When it comes to newer students, you can’t be too hasty with them since they need to go through a process of improving their understanding. If of their own initiative they offer to do something, then let them. But if they don’t want to do something out of their own initiative, I don’t think we can compel them to do anything, since they are still newer students after all.
Question: Some new students have entered the Way and obtained the Fa over the past two years in San Diego, California, and predestined people keep coming every week to learn the practice. Some of those newer students are quite capable and are qualified to get involved in projects to validate the Fa. Shall we have them go straight into doing the three things or ask them to study the Fa and do the exercises only, and then involve them later on in projects to validate the Fa?
Teacher : I can see that you are very shorthanded and are anxious to get some capable new students involved. But I still think it’s better not to be hasty. Why is that? Because when veteran students talk about things together and are in that state where they are not very mindful of the way they come across, it will scare the new students. [Because of] your energy, even though your words might not be strong, to them they are strong. And though you might not raise your voice, to them it sounds like thunder. (Audience laughs) That’s truly how it feels to them. So you should wait and not get the newer students involved until they’ve gained a certain level of understanding and knowledge, and had a chance to improve gradually—at least until they have some deeper insight into Dafa. That way it won’t lead to their giving up cultivation out of a lack of understanding on something.- Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York (November 2004)
Activites Convenient For Daily Life, Practitioners
Not Allowed To Do Only Falun Dafa Activities
Say your schedule is tight today and you just want to do the second exercise, the third exercise, or the fourth exercise—that, too, is all right. If you have more time, you can do more; if you have less time, you can do less—the exercises are quite convenient.
- Falun Gong (Part II, Chapter III)
I’ve never forced you into anything. You can cultivate while conforming to the ordinary society as much as possible. But as a cultivator, you need to know how you should act. Try your best to do well, and try your best to measure up to the standard for a cultivator. I’m very much against your immediately getting anxious as soon as you hear Master say something, and once you get anxious you immediately go to extremes and stop doing anything, thinking “I’ll do only [Falun Dafa] things.” You can’t do that, because the path Dafa disciples take today will be the cultivation path of people in the future.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada (May 2003)
If someone wants to spend all of his time studying the Fa and to resign from his job to stay at home, I’d say he is harming the Fa. Whoever spreads those ideas, whoever does that, is being irresponsible to both the Fa and himself. Who taught you to do things like resigning from work or even not working anymore? Wouldn’t you be harming the Fa?
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore (August 1998)
Maintaining a Balanced Life
is Required in Falun Dafa
You can’t disengage yourself from the ordinary world, and you have to cultivate with full awareness. You should still have normal relationships with other people. [....] If when you’re around ordinary people they see you as obsessed, and if nobody sees you as one of their own, then they’ll all stay away from you, and nobody is going to give you a chance to improve your character. Nobody will think you’re normal. How awful! So you’ve got to make sure you’re aware of this. You’ve really got to handle yourself well.
- Zhuan Falun (Lecture Eight)
I think that you can’t neglect your lives and ignore everything. I’m telling you that what you’re leaving behind now is the cultivation path for people in the future. If all the people in the future go to extremes like this, not caring about their jobs or businesses, or even going and begging for food while they validate Dafa, that absolutely won’t work.
You should make sure that your life’s in order, and do your job well. Let me tell you, you’re a member of society, and you should try your best to do well everything you’re supposed to do at whatever job you have in society, you should be a good person wherever you are, and thus lead people in society to all say you’re a good person. (Applause) Don’t go to extremes when you do things. Every aspect of the path we take has to be upright.- Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference (February 2003)
...You can’t go to extremes, you can’t go to any extreme. Once you go to an extreme, you’ve damaged the path I arranged for you and Fa’s requirements for you. You should do the things you should do in a normal way.
- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada (May 2003)
Don't stop going to school or quit your job. Don't go to extremes. Doing so would bring about a lot of trouble.
- Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference (February 2005)
I always need to add this: This is how Dafa disciples cultivate, and nobody should go to extremes. Carry on with what you would normally do. Whatever you would do, you should still just go about it as usual.
- Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington DC Fa Conference (July 2004)