The San Diego Union Tribune: Falun Gong Practice Banned in China is Taught at Local Park

November 20, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) POWAY C Falun Gong may be banned in China, but the controversial meditation exercise can be freely performed in Poway Community Park.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that emphasizes mind and body awareness through slow-motion martial arts exercises. Some meditations are done in the lotus position, and others while standing, with arms outstretched, listening to soft music.

Generally, practitioners meditate for about two hours.

The new Falun Gong group meets from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays at the park, 13094 Civic Center Drive.

Falun Gong became controversial in 1999 when the practice, which is similar to tai chi, was banned in China because its growing number of supporters were seen as a threat to communist rule.

"The Chinese government tries to get people to renounce Falun Gong," said local practitioner Arleen Freeman. "If not, then they're tortured. It's pretty sick."

But in the United States, participants, such as Lillian Zheng of Scripps Ranch, are free to do as they wish.

Zheng and her husband, Shizhong Chen, call Falun Gong an ancient cultivation practice for body and mind.

"Just like acupuncture, it opens up a blocked part of your energy," said Zheng.

Zheng and Chen say they've observed health improvements in people who take part in the meditations.

"People come to class and want to try it out and see what it does to them," said Zheng, whose father quit smoking after taking up the practice.

Susan Young, a Sabre Springs resident from Taiwan, offers instruction to the Poway group.

"It's very easy to learn," said Young, who is retired. She said Falun Gong has helped to reduce her migraines.

So far, only a few people have shown up for the Saturday sessions.

Zheng, Freeman and other local practitioners distribute a monthly newsletter about the spiritual practice.

"We feel it's our responsibility to let people know what's happening to people in China," she said.

Zheng's parents are Falun Gong practitioners in China. She said that they have been arrested four times for their association with the practice and that police interrogated them in the middle of the night and ransacked their home.

"The Chinese government never allowed people to have their own thoughts," said Zheng. "It's another form of suppression from the government. It's another way of controlling the people.

"If this is a strange practice, if this harms my life, I wouldn't do it. I learned this while I was doing a master's degree program in Houston. I feel it has only enhanced what I have."

Freeman agrees.

"My energy has changed a lot. I don't have a lot of conflict inside me," she said.

Freeman began practicing in 1999, three years after being attacked in her home by a stranger.

She said that, after practicing Falun Gong for two months, she developed a deep sense of serenity and felt improvements in her health. So, she stopped her therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I didn't need it anymore," she said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/metro/news_m1m20tfpow.html