(Minghui.org) I’d like to share my understanding of the subordinate soul [Editor’s note: also translated as assistant consciousness, assistant spirit, assistant soul, and subconsciousness in various Fa lectures] in this 7-part series.
I have personally experienced various forms of interference that my subordinate soul imposed on my master soul [Editor’s note: also translated as main consciousness, main soul, and main spirit]. I have also witnessed some local practitioners being persecuted by their subordinate souls.
I've written down what happened to me and several fellow practitioners in my area to serve as a reminder to everyone to be aware of hidden interference from subordinate souls.
Of course, I can only see the things shown to me at my level, and they are by no means the whole truth.
Practitioners should be guided only by the Fa—the truth of the vast universe—and not by the understanding or experience of another cultivator.
No practitioner wants to have regrets after having overcome many obstacles and passed many tests in their long journey towards consummation. However, we don’t always achieve our desired outcome, due to interference from different complex factors. To me, the most covert and insidious interference was from my subordinate soul.
Master said:
“For thousands of years, all other practices introduced among everyday people have refined the cultivator’s assistant consciousness; the person’s flesh and main consciousness have served only as mediums. Upon reaching Perfection, the cultivator’s assistant consciousness would ascend and take the gong away with it. There would then be nothing left for the person’s main consciousness and innate body—a lifetime of cultivation effort is in vain.” (The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection)
“Everyone knows that this Dafa of ours is for the cultivation of your main consciousness. It means that it is given to you yourself. You have to cultivate yourself with a clear consciousness.” (Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia)
Master further expounded on the relationship between master soul and subordinate soul in this passage:
“Of course, when your master soul gets gong your subordinate soul gets it, too. Why? Because all the messages, all the living entities in your body, or all of your cells are developing gong, so of course his gong grows, too. But at no time will he be as high as you are—you’re the one in charge, and he guards the Law.” (Zhuan Falun)
Master's teachings clearly illustrate that throughout history all cultivation practices cultivated the subordinate soul. However, Master changed this and allowed the master soul to cultivate in Falun Dafa.
Master has taught the Fa so clearly, but I discovered that some subordinate souls are still using main souls and the human flesh body as a vehicle for their own cultivation. They listened to Master's teachings but they refused to follow them.
Sometimes the subordinate soul even interfered with the master soul's cultivation and got involved in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. The situations were quite severe in some cases.
Master told us in Falun Gong,
“Everyone has a main consciousness. A person usually relies on his or her main consciousness in order to act and think. Along with the main consciousness, a person also has one or more assistant consciousnesses and spirits inherited from ancestors.”
I came to understand that it was the old forces that installed assistant consciousness or subordinate souls to Dafa practitioners – enlightened beings who followed Master to the human world in the Fa-rectification process.
These subordinate souls control practitioners’ bodies at a microcosmic level, as Master explained to us in “Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference” (Guiding the Voyage):
“This is because a person’s Assistant Primordial Spirit doesn’t enter the Three Realms, but controls the person’s body at a microcosmic level beyond the Three Realms.”
I also noted a few other scenarios where subordinate souls came into being.
Some subordinate souls were the guards of the enlightened being in higher realms, and they followed along when the latter descended to the human world to become Dafa practitioners.
Some were very powerful lives that the enlightened beings came across while descending to the human world. They decided to join the mission and thus became subordinate souls of Dafa practitioners.
Some were representatives from other galaxies and accepted the old forces’ arrangement to be a subordinate soul.
The above-mentioned subordinate souls were all righteous beings to begin with. However, during their descent to the human world, some were deceived or threatened by the old forces and agreed to persecute Dafa practitioners.
Master said:
“Despite all the talk about cultivation that has taken place, nobody has ever succeeded at it. And though they talked much about ascending to the heavens, nobody ever made it up there. You know about the subordinate soul. There have been subordinate souls that ascended to the heavens after using the human body as a vehicle for cultivation. After using a human being as a vehicle, the subordinate soul would assume a human image, and that is why some people have seen this or that person ascend to the heavens via some past cultivation method. They might say that the person was seen ascending to the heavens upon his death, but the one who ascended to the heavens was not the person's main soul, nor truly that person. So none of the beings that have come to the Three Realms have ever made it back. Those who did were all subordinate souls, and what became of the main body was never something the subordinate soul deemed important. Human beings have never been deemed important by any gods.” (“Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference VII)
When I read, “Human beings have never been deemed important by any gods,” a shiver ran down my spine.
I realized my subordinate soul had been involved in the persecution and created tribulations for me. I also realized that my subordinate soul wanted me to endure hardship during the process, but he wanted to consummate.
At times when I was suffering, I could feel a life above my head sneering at me. When I was troubled and helpless, I looked up to the sky in desperation and could sense a life standing beside me and looking at me indifferently. Also, when the police officers chased me for handing out Dafa truth-clarification materials, and I was breathless and exhausted, I felt that a life was laughing at me.
Several times when I was watching Master’s lecture videos, I sensed another life watching it with more concentration than I was. Once when I just turned on the video, I saw that life sitting there, watching closely. I said, “You look very serious.” He impatiently waved his hand and told me not to interrupt.
I asked another practitioner, “Who is that life? Is he a life in my world?”
“A life in your world would cry if he saw you suffering for them,” said the fellow practitioner. “How could he laugh at you?”
I observed this life eye to eye about 5 years ago and noticed he was looking at my thoughts. He was startled and immediately hid. I sensed he was sorry that I had seen him. He hid by creating a partition to separate us.
At first I was sorry for causing him so much trouble. However, when I look back at it, I remember that his eyes were cold and penetrating. I sensed he was using me and looking down on me at the same time.
When the persecution started, a leader in our company called me to his office. I went, but before I could say a word, a thought entered my mind, “This room is so dirty, I am leaving.” Then I saw myself dressed in ancient clothing, flying out of the room.
Master said:
“If you open your eyes to look around while you are sitting there in meditation and you see that there’s another you across from you, then that is your assistant consciousness. If you are sitting there in meditation facing north, but all of a sudden you find that you’re sitting on the north side, wondering, ‘How did I come out of my body?’, then that is your true self that has come out. What sits over there is your flesh and assistant consciousness. You can tell them apart.” (Falun Gong)
Now, I know that this subordinate soul had never been my guardian, and did not assist and protect me. If I died, he would leave and continue his own mission.
Once, I decided to take some Dafa informational materials to a village the next day. The day before my trip, while riding with my child on my bike, I suddenly lost control of my bicycle and it ran toward the curb. I had to jump off the bike holding my child. My feet ached badly. The next day, despite the accident, I went to that village.
Now, I understand that this subordinate soul was controlling the bike to cause that accident to keep me from going to the village. It wanted me to study the Fa at home.
I’ve recalled much of what happened in the past years and realized that the subordinate soul has been involved in many incidents. He was a hidden, but desperate life. He heard Master's teachings but did not follow them. He did not protect the master soul; he persecuted it. Because he took part in persecuting me, he was destroyed in the end.
(Continued in Part 2)