Jesus, like others, was at the Tathagata level. In the past, Tathagata was the lowest status among Buddhas. It used to be that those below Tathagata status were not referred to as Buddhas; they were called “Bodhisattva” or “Arhat.” Each Tathagata has his own heavenly kingdom (tian-guo). There are over one hundred Tathagatas in our Milky Way. That means that there are over one hundred worlds of Buddhas’ heavenly kingdoms. Each such world is ruled by a Tathagata. The Tathagata in each heavenly kingdom world has his own set of cultivation methods, his own set of methods for saving people. The formation of one’s world is directly related to one’s own cultivation. The creation of one’s world is the product of cultivation. But these worlds are not something that modern man can create through cultivation. They came into being countless eons ago.
There is an issue here. As ordinary people, we might think that as we cultivate it’s good to enrich our minds by learning more cultivation methods and coming to know more of what’s taught in different religions. And people regard such things as their ordinary people’s wisdom and knowledge. Actually, they are not knowledge in the ordinary sense, and you can’t view these things with ordinary concepts. Why is it that a human being has to focus on cultivating his xinxing in cultivation, and why do the Daoist practices emphasize virtue? Because this universe has a Fa, a special property. This special property of the universe has different requirements for different beings at different levels. Human beings are at this level of ordinary beings, so they need to meet the moral standard set for ordinary human beings. Why is it that they can’t make progress [in cultivation] unless they take virtue to be important? It’s because the levels beyond ordinary human beings have standards for heavenly beings, and if you don’t measure up to them, you won’t be able to go there. Why can divine beings in the heavens fall? Why can an Arhat fall when he fails to cultivate well? The reason is that they no longer meet the standards at their respective levels.
So, there are over one hundred heavenly kingdoms in this Milky Way, and each heavenly kingdom has one Tathagata presiding over it. The qualities and composition of his heavenly kingdom are formed by his cultivation method. We have found that, be it in religious practices or other cultivation ways, the motions at the surface are quite simple—a meditation with conjoining of hands (jie-yin) will do. Even in the case of the Daoist school, which requires more motions, there are only but a few and they are simple. Then how is it such practices manage to reach the lofty realms of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats? It’s because the true development and transformation of gong is extremely complex. The person’s very cells have to be evolved and transformed, a whole array of divine powers have to be developed, and there are a great many things yet unknown to man—things that are appropriate only for certain levels—and these too must be developed. To use an analogy, they are more intricate than even the most complicated precision instruments known to the human world, and are simply beyond man’s reach. There is thus a saying in the cultivation world, which goes, “Cultivation is up to you, while gong is up to the master.” In other words, a true cultivation method… Even though people of the Daoist school have discussed cultivation methods, those represent merely principles at the surface level and an aspiration. They are merely conceptual. If one truly aspires to cultivate real gong that’s comprised of high-energy matter, he needs to have that aspiration of his own accord, the desire to do it. But the real evolving that takes place in other dimensions is extraordinarily complex, and beyond the means of human beings. It is all done by the person’s master.
Then, there’s an issue here. If you mix things from other practices into your cultivation, problems will come about. In the past, monks were not allowed to have contact with other practices, and for generations monasteries strictly prohibited monks from reading the texts of other practices. Today’s monks are a mess. It used to be that monks couldn’t have any worldly possessions, and they were utterly forbidden from reading the texts of other practices. The reason is, it’s essential to make him stay with one single cultivation method, holding fast to one cultivation discipline. Only when his mind and thoughts are filled with the content of one practice will he be able to steadily cultivate higher, making his way up a singular path. Otherwise, if you mix in things from other practices it is akin to putting a camera part into a television set—it will immediately break. I’m just illustrating a point. If a person mixes things into his cultivation, his whole practice will be fouled up, and he will no longer make progress. Furthermore, it’s hard to discern the true things from the false, and if you mix in wicked, false things, you will likely end up having cultivated completely in vain. Even your master would have no remedy, for it would be a problem of your xinxing.
The [process of] developing and evolving gong is extremely complicated, but people have treated it as if it were some ordinary human theory. “I’ll learn a little from Christianity, a little from Buddhism, a little from Daoism, and a little from Confucianism.” They may refer to it as “several teachings under the same roof,” but that’s in fact nonsense. This is the biggest problem that has arisen in the Age of Law’s End. Every human being has Buddha nature, has a wish to cultivate, and wants to be good. However, people have treated these things as ordinary human theory. It might be the case with ordinary human skills that the more you know, the better. But a person [who mixes in other practices] is only compounding the mess at hand. He will have no way to cultivate, and have not a trace of gong.
zhuan falun volume 2
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