Thursday, July 20, 2000

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

He has not been sick in more than two years, he says, and he feels healthier and has discovered answers to some of life's most puzzling questions.

Since he began practicing Falun Gong, software analyst Kim Eng says he has reached a higher level of mental and physical development.

"It's not easy to understand," Eng said of the spiritual practice that claims 100 million followers and was banned in China one year ago today.

"My outlook has become more positive, more relaxed, and I have a better understanding of myself," he said one evening in the International District, where he and others perform exercises designed to purify the body.

They sweep their hands in a slow, concentrated gesture -- first above their heads, to their sides and then clasped in front of their abdomens.

The recorded voice of Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi recites instructions in Mandarin. A meditative beat drums. Nearby, several people stop and stare.

Chinese authorities cracked down on Falun Gong, branding it unlawful and an "evil cult." Thousands of followers were jailed.

In an editorial in today's People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, the government grudgingly conceded that a year of arrests, harassment and media campaigns has failed to eliminate Falun Gong.

Even as Chinese authorities continued to detain Falun Gong protesters in Beijing yesterday, followers staged demonstrations in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities.

Eng and 19 Seattle area followers plan to join thousands at a candlelight vigil tonight outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

"We want to try to let more people know what it's about and that it's not what the Chinese government says it is," Eng said.

Last fall, the spiritual practice made news in Seattle when Mayor Paul Schell revoked a city proclamation celebrating Li and "Falun Gong Day." He said he didn't want to risk offending Chinese officials on the eve of the World Trade Organization conference here.

Introduced to the public in 1992, Falun Gong combines elements of Taoism, Buddhism, the meditation techniques of "qigong," a traditional martial arts, and Li's own teachings.

Not a religion

The government in China says Falun Gong has attracted about 2.1 million adherents, while Falun Gong claims 100 million. Some experts say the true number is in the tens of millions. There is no firm estimate of the number of followers in the Seattle area.

Falun Gong, which means Wheel of Law, does not consider itself a religion and has no clergy or formal places of worship. There is no official membership or real organizational center.

Li says that if Falun Gong is practiced diligently and at an advanced level, it brings freedom from sickness and illness. China blames Falun Gong for causing 1,500 deaths, mostly of people who, in accordance with its teachings, refuse medical treatment.

In the past year, the crackdown on Falun Gong has led to at least two dozen deaths, according to a Hong Kong human rights group.

The government has detained thousands, arrested hundreds, sentenced hundreds to labor re-education and seized and destroyed more than 1 million books, U.S. State Department human rights report says.

Kan Liang, a Seattle University assistant professor of modern Chinese history, said Communist leaders view Falun Gong as a threat to social stability.

He said Chinese authorities paid little attention to Falun Gong until April 25, 1999, when 10,000 practitioners staged a peaceful protest outside the Beijing leadership compound. It was the largest demonstration in Beijing since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

"They just sat there," Liang said. "When they left, they left so quietly. Think about it. The government was shocked. Chinese leaders thought, 'Oh, this was so organized.' The mentality was: 'This is bad. The more organized, the more dangerous.'"

Li has denied his group has political ambitions. But Liang said the movement became politicized when followers gathered en masse in Beijing.

"Now, everyone knows Falun Gong," Liang said.

The group's founder was a former government clerk from northeastern China who distinguished himself from other qigong masters in the 1990s.

Supernormal powers

He preaches a form of qigong that combines meditation and healing. And he claims supernormal powers, including the ability to levitate and be invisible.

Li left China in 1998 and is living in exile in New York. He has given lectures worldwide, but has not been seen in public in the past year.

A Falun Gong spokesman in New York, Erping Zhang, declined an interview request.

Wei-ping Chen, an avid Seattle practitioner, heard Li speak at a 1996 conference in Houston.

"I don't know why the (Chinese) government doesn't want to let us practice," he said through a translator. "I think it's the best practice."

For years Chen tried more than 10 forms of qigong, hoping to find one to heal his back. He tried traditional medicine and folk remedies.

Then Chen's brother introduced him to Falun Gong. Chen read Li's book, "Zhuan Falun," and learned the five exercises.

His excruciating back pain healed after two months, he said.

One exercise, "Buddha Showing Thousand Hands," stretches his body and circulates energy. "Way of Strengthening Supernormal Powers," a sitting exercise, develops his "energy potency."

The breathing and stretching exercises, which Chen performs at Green Lake with two dozen others, cultivate one's qi, or vital energy.

Such energy leads to good health and a sense of well-being, he said. At the highest level, that energy allows the body to perform supernormal feats, including changing the body's matter at the cellular level. Not everybody gets there, Chen said. But Master Li has, he added.

Chen said he is attracted to Falun Gong mainly because it preaches the characteristics of the universe -- truth, compassion and tolerance.

"The ultimate goal is to be a better person," he said. "Your moral standard is raised above others."

Eng and Chen instruct newcomers during exercise sessions in parks and community centers in Queen Anne, Green Lake, Rainier Valley, the International District, Bellevue and Kirkland.

At one practice in Rainier Valley, Eng and nine others meditate for about an hour, using the recording of Li's voice featured at all practices.

Then the group gathers around a table to study the book, "Zhuan Falun." They take turns reading aloud in their own language -- English, Vietnamese and Mandarin.

Tan Truong, a Central Area resident who attends the Rainier Valley practice, later talked about how it has improved his character. Falun Gong explained moral virtue in a way that wasn't theoretical, the 28-year-old information analyst said.

"It offers me the raw material to do my personal work," he said. Each person develops his or her own understanding of the practice, he added.

Truong said he has tried to reduce his attachments, including eating less sugar, watching less television and spending less time surfing the Internet and less time trying to always be right. Falun Gong teaches him to be conscious of his actions, he said.

"If I give up such attachments, my relationships will be much more harmonious," said Truong, a baptized Catholic. "I've become a better person. I'm easier to be around. My mind is clearer.

"I tell people about Falun Gong and they laugh. They say, 'Oh, that's interesting' or 'Hey, are you doing that cult thing?' It's not for everyone."

Wei-ping Chen, center, has been practicing Falun Gong for four years, and he says it has cured his
excruciating back pain. But the ultimate goal, he says, "is to be a better person." (Meryl Schenker/P-I)
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C.Y. Wong of Seattle helps a new practitioner of Falun Gong learn an exercise during a session at Green Lake to enhance one's energy. (Meryl Schenker/P-I)
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Falung Gong practitioners exercise at Green Lake. Falun Gong is a practice of exercise and meditation
now banned in China as an "evil cult." It combines elements of Taoism, Buddhism, the
meditation techniques of "qigong," a traditional martial arts, and the teachings of its founder,
Li Hongzhi. (Meryl Schenker/P-I)