Thursday, May 25, 2000

Artwork courtesy of Falun gong volunteer Web site

Falun heavenly circulation exercise

A Web site operated by Falun Gong volunteers (www.uidaho.edu) shows many of the exercises followers of the movement use to improve health and gain enlightenment. The Falun heavenly circulation exercise is shown here. The most outstanding feature of this exercise is to use the rotation of falun to rectify all the abnormal conditions of the human body, according to the book China Falun Gong by Li Honghzi.

Hua Deng of Fayetteville believes he has found answers to life's questions through one spiritual path -- Falun Gong.

"I feel (Falun Gong) can explain everything -- from the universe to human society," he said.

Yet, this movement -- which combines spiritual and physical exercises to improve health and gain enlightenment -- has sparked much controversy since it was introduced by Li Hongzhi in 1992. Falun Gong has been labeled a religion, cult and political movement -- practitioners of Falun Gong deny each of these classifications.

"Falun Gong is not a religion. So how can it be a cult?" said Wade Yang of Fayetteville, explaining that the Falun Gong movement lacks what he believes are the distinguishing features of religion, such as a formal hierarchy and proselytism.

"One feature of a cult is control. There is no control of others in (Falun Gong). Falun Gong is all up to the individual's own will," he said.

However, Falun Gong can be characterized as a cult, said Henry Tsai, professor of history at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

"(Falun Gong) combines some Taoist and Buddhist teachings, but it is nothing like a serious religion in my opinion," Tsai said.

"In fact, the ideological foundation of Falun Gong and of the Moonies (the Unification Church led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon) is very similar," he said.

Falun Gong and the Unification Church promote very different ideas, yet they share a common feature -- a living, charismatic leader. Li emerged out of relative obscurity to establish Falun Gong -- which is a form of traditional Chinese qigong exercises -- in 1992. Li registered Falun Gong -- or Falun Dafa as it is also called -- with the Qigong Research Association in China; however, Li withdrew Falun Gong from this society in 1996 because the goal of his teachings differed from the other qigong schools, which focus on physical fitness rather than spirituality. Because the Chinese government refused to allow Falun Gong to be registered in any other category, it lacks legal status within China.

Li settled in New York in 1998, and he speaks frequently at Falun Gong conferences within the United States and abroad.

Followers of Falun Gong believe that the Chinese government has tried to "smear" Li as an opportunist and subversive politician.

"The Chinese papers report that Master Li supports doomsday beliefs. This is not true. Master Li says there is no doomsday -- it doesn't exist. The Chinese papers also say he accumulates wealth from his followers. All of Master Li's income comes from book royalties. We don't send any money to Master Li," Yang said.

"If Master Li wanted money, all he would have to do is ask for $1 from each of the practitioners. Then he would have millions," Yang said.

Falun Gong adheres to a traditional Asian concept -- "improving the body as well as the spirit," Yang said.

Although Falun Gong is not a form of Taoism or Buddhism, it shares some of the same ideals, Tsai commented. "(Falun Gong) contains some very good lessons from Buddhism and Taoism, and it is possible to cultivate virtue from these teachings. Its religious teachings are very superficial, in my opinion," he said.

Practitioners of Falun Gong combine a spiritual discipline they refer to as "cultivation of xinxing" with five key physical exercises -- falun heavenly circulation, way of strengthening divine powers, Buddha showing the thousand hands, falun standing stance, and penetrating the two cosmic extremes.

The cultivation of xinxing, or one's moral quality, is a critical component of Falun Gong, Yang said. Xinxing is developed through following three key values -- "zhen-shah-ren" or truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

"The principle is simple," Deng said. "Material things only last for a short time. If you occupy your mind with better things, you improve yourself."

Falun Gong practitioners spend much of their time reading and rereading books written by Li. "We do book reading every day. Sometimes there are interruptions, but we try to read 20 to 30 minutes each day -- longer when possible," Yang explained.

"The key (to enlightenment) is within the books," Deng said. "Each time I read one again, I find something new."

Followers of Falun Gong believe the center of spiritual and physical energy is located in the lower abdomen. In "China Falun Gong," Li writes, "I will first adjust your body to a state suitable for advanced cultivation, then install falun (law wheel) and qiji (energy mechanism) in your body."

"Master Li does not insert the law wheel in the physical body. It exists in another dimension," Yang explained. "You can feel heat, but you cannot see heat. It is the same with the law wheel. Some are able to feel it; others are not."

This law wheel, which represents the universe in miniature, is believed to control the flow of energy within the body, guaranteeing physical and spiritual well-being and, at the end of training, endowing the practitioner with "supernormal powers," such as precognition, telepathy and clairaudience.

"If there is something wrong with the physical body, the law wheel can rectify it," Yang said.

Although Falun Gong followers do not reject all forms of modern medicine, they believe that illness is related to karma. Karma is created by all the "bad things" a person has done in "this life or in past lives," Li writes.

"A person with more karma is more likely to suffer disease or other mishaps until he pays back the debt, creating balance," Yang said.

"Master Li did not say not to go to a doctor," Yang said. "Contemporary medicine can cure disease, but it cannot touch the real problem -- karma."

The Chinese government, which has banned the practice of Falun Gong, views the sect with such rancor and suspicion because it has become such a significant social and political movement within that country.

"The rising popularity of Falun Gong -- and similar movements -- is a recurrent phenomena throughout Chinese history," Tsai explained. "The Communist regime is so fearful of (Falun Gong) because most Chinese dynasties have been overthrown by these types of groups."

Although some followers of Falun Gong have demonstrated against the Chinese government recently, Falun Gong itself is not a political movement, Yang said.

"(Falun Gong) practitioners are human. They just want to exercise their legal rights" -- rights denied to them by the Chinese government, he said. "When the practitioners demonstrated in Beijing, they were all very well-behaved, very peaceful. They did not hit back when beaten by the police. (The demonstrators) even picked up the garbage before leaving."

The United States House of Representatives and Senate passed a concurrent resolution in November criticizing Chinese persecution of the Falun Gong movement.

"Falun Gong is a symptom of the political oppression in China," Yang stated.

"People are suffocating under the Chinese system. If Falun Gong had not appeared, (a similar group would have gained prominence). The movements are the same really -- only the names change," Tsai said.

"The followers of the Falun Gong movement are quite similar to those of the White Lotus Society," Tsai said. The White Lotus Society was a group that combined Buddhist beliefs and indigenous folk religions and incited followers to rebel against dynastic rule from 1796 to 1804.

"Chinese society is in chaos. The government's quasi-reforms have closed many factories," he explained. "Under Mao (Tse-tung) everyone had a job. Many people have lost their jobs. Many fear losing their 'iron rice bowls.' They move to the cities, looking for jobs, by the millions. People are moving from the countryside like a wave."

Falun Gong, and similar movements, attract followers because of these social and political forces, Tsai said. "The problem is the condition of Chinese society. A healthy society doesn't have to worry about Falun Gong."