As to cultivation practice, many people believe that cultivation practice is only about doing some exercises, sitting in meditation, and learning some incantations that can then transform them into Gods or Buddhas or allow them to attain the Tao. In fact, this is not cultivation practice but merely practicing for worldly skills.

In religion, much attention has been directed at cultivation, and this is called conduct cultivation. Accordingly, it has gone to the other extreme. A monk or a nun tries very hard to chant the scriptures and regards one’s depth in understanding of the scriptures as the means to completing cultivation. In fact, when Buddha Sakyamuni, Jesus, and Lao Zi were in this world, there were no scriptures at all—there was only genuine cultivation. What the venerable masters taught were statements made to guide cultivation practice. Recalling their words, later followers put them into books and called them scriptures. They gradually began to study Buddhist philosophy or the theories of Dharma. Unlike what happened during the days of the venerable masters—when people would genuinely practice cultivation and use their teachings as the guide for genuine cultivation, these people have instead taken the study of religious scriptures and scholarship as cultivation practice.

This is a lesson in history. The disciples who practice cultivation in Falun Dafa must remember that you absolutely should not take the Fa merely as the academic scholarship of everyday people or for monks to study rather than genuinely practicing cultivation. Why do I tell you to study, read, and memorize Zhuan Falun? It is to guide your cultivation practice! As to those who only do the exercises but do not study the Fa, they are not disciples of Dafa whatsoever. Only when you are studying the Fa and cultivating your heart in addition to the means of completing cultivation—the exercises, and truly changing yourself fundamentally while upgrading your xinxing and elevating your level—can it be called genuine cultivation practice.