Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York 

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 Of course, regardless of who I am, people know that I am transmitting the Fa and saving people. But the Master who is with you here today teaching the Fa has an ordinary person’s physical body. As for how people think of me, a lot of ordinary people have their opinions. That’s fine—it doesn’t matter if they believe in me or not. I haven’t said that I am a god or a Buddha. Ordinary people can take me to be just an average, common man, that’s fine. All of what I do takes the form of human activity; I’m using the means of common, plain human beings as I save Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. No high-level life will, when he saves people in this social environment, in this kind of illusory dimension, use only grand, divine displays to miraculously save people in the human world. (Applause) But it’s different if what he does is on a small scale, or only involves a few people, or if it was something done in the past to create culture. That’s how things are for mankind. Of course, though, nothing is absolute. Maybe when the Fa rectifies the human world I will use divine means, since at that time things might need to be done that way. But if around the start of the Fa’s rectification of the cosmos things here in society were handled with divine means on a large scale, that would have led to some attachments on the part of cultivators. 

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 Only when a person follows the method that Dafa uses today to accomplish things, cultivate, and truly save people can he Consummate. (Applause) And it’s not just Consummation—the person is truly saved, the person’s master soul is saved. (Applause) As for those so-called gods who interfere with Fa-rectification, they only know a part of it but not the whole, they only know about the past but not today or the future, and only know the surface form but not the inner content. When they try to do things they aren’t capable of doing them, and they have brought serious interference to Fa-rectification itself and Dafa disciples’ cultivation. That’s why I say everything that I’m doing today is completely different from what took place in history. Looking at the persecution of Dafa disciples and that of Christians in history, on the surface both were being persecuted. But for these cultivators, beings on their way to godhood, what actually takes place is different. They strictly had to endure because in the past the cosmos didn’t have the ability to resolve those deeply rooted historical issues, causing even high-level beings to persecute gods as well as human beings who were on their way to godhood. All of that was shameful, both for the history of the cosmos and on the part of the gods. Today what I’m doing is not just different from the path that they took in the past; it is the difference between the future and the past. This is the way that the cultivation method Dafa has bestowed upon people is; Dafa disciples and I are laying a foundation for the future. The cultivation methods of the future will be like this forever! (Applause) Only this can be called truly saving people, and only this can truly save people. 

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 What I said just now was meant for our Dafa disciples. Those of you who aren’t cultivators or who are new students might not quite understand what I just said and find it hard to believe. Don’t worry, I am not here to hurt anyone, and there is nothing here that’s bad for people. If you didn’t understand it, you can come to understand it gradually, and it’s fine to come to understand these cultivators incrementally. 

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 Master’s words just now were fairly harsh. You might have noticed that recently, sometimes my words to such students have been pretty harsh. That’s because I have seen the terrifying consequences that await them. No matter how you take those words, no matter how the people who don’t understand me or Dafa disciples see things, I, Li Hongzhi, came for all beings. I’m saving all beings, and I don’t want to see a single being destroy himself, because I came exactly for you! (Applause) I am worried, I am worried about you. Time is becoming more and more pressing. You have seen that, and the overall situation has changed a lot. If the persecution suddenly ends, then no opportunity is left, and everything will have been decided. 

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 Disciple asks: If circumstances allow, can I go back to Mainland China to work? 
 Teacher: If the persecution ends and the Fa’s rectification of the human world hasn’t arrived yet, then if you want to go back to Mainland China to work, you can go ahead. Are you asking if you can go back now? Right now it’s best not to go back because the persecution is still going on. I know that a few individual students might have received phone calls or messages from certain officials in Mainland China or people with certain positions. The