You Should Practice One Cultivation Way: No Second Way of Cultivation

My Master said no matter how you cultivate, you should not mess up your cultivation by adding other things. Even within Buddhism itself, it is taught that no two denominations or sects can be mixed together. Those who practice Pure Land can’t practice Zen, for example. The two cannot be mixed.

I am telling you that in the end, you will obtain nothing because no one will give you anything. Though both practices count as Buddhist, there is a problem with your thinking as well as the issue of not staying true to one practice.

Each system has its own energy mechanism that helps you develop gong, which is higher energy, not qi, which is basic energy. You have just one body to work with, so which of the two’s energy is your body supposed to develop? What kind of transformation would your energy go through? And where are you trying to go? The discipline that you practice will take you to its domain.

Practicing Pure Land Buddhism leads to Buddha Amitabha’s Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, for example, just as following Medicine Buddha leads to the Lapis Lazuli Paradise. What we’re discussing is a common religious tenet, and it is called “no second cultivation way.”

The means by which higher energy comes about in other dimensions is extremely intricate, profound, and mysterious, and not something to be trifled with as when you freely mix foreign things into your practice.

You have only one body, and you could liken it to a type of raw material that is fed into a unique machine. Your higher energy is developed in that machine.

Everything has to be meticulously arranged for you—be it the method used to save you, each step that’s to be taken, the form in which each type of higher energy is evolved, and so on.

But if halfway through that process you went into a different machine, what would be the outcome, then? Could you still cultivate? You would be a complete mess.

Salvation in the Dharma-Ending Age

The Buddha stated that in the Dharma-Ending Age, it would be hard even for temple monks to gain salvation, much less lay Buddhists, who would no longer be watched over by higher beings.

You might have formally become a student of some teacher, but if that individual isn’t doing genuine spiritual practice, then he will be no different from an adherent himself; spiritual progress isn’t possible without working on the mind.

The ceremonies of conversion are human affairs, and couldn’t possibly be all it takes for you to become, for instance, a Buddhist, and enjoy the Buddha’s care and protection. That’s not how it works. And neither will praying and bowing to a statue so fervently that your body aches, nor lighting scores of devotional candles, change anything.

What you have to do is really work on your heart and mind with all due sincerity. In the Dharma-Ending Age, the universe has changed dramatically, and even many places of worship are in a troubled state. Those with supernormal abilities (including monks) have also discovered this situation.

At present, I (Master Li Hong Zhi) am the only one in the entire world publicly teaching the righteous Way. Never before has anyone done what I am doing, let alone been as welcoming as this, and in these latter days.

An opportunity like this is normally very, if not extremely, rare. But whether you can be saved—that is, whether or not you can cultivate—still depends upon you, yourself. What I am telling you is a principle of the immense universe.

My point isn’t that you have to learn Falun Dafa or the Great Way of Cultivation, but to convey a principle. Namely, that in spiritual practice you need to stay true to one practice. Otherwise, it simply won’t work out. So naturally, if you aren’t interested in our spiritual practice, we won’t try to coerce you in any way; the teaching is meant for those who are sincere about practicing.

So you must commit to one practice and not even mix in concepts from other ones. Nor should you incorporate any techniques related to the mind. Our Way of Cultivation doesn’t make use of those, and they are not something I teach.

This point really has to be heeded. There are basically no mental techniques used in our discipline. This is consistent with the Buddhist belief in “emptiness” and the Daoist idea of “nothingness.”

(This article is an excerpt from Zhuan Falun (The Third Talk) by Master Li Hong Zhi)