Greeley Tribune (Colorado, USA): Falun Gong spreads (Photo)

March 24, 2003

Tina Huerter helps lead a group of people in some Falun Gong exercises at a free workshop on the ancient Chinese meditation at Farr Library in Greeley. About a dozen people gathered at the library Sunday to learn Falun Gong, as well as to discuss the ongoing persecution faced by its practitioners in China.

The Chinese government has tried to stop the spread of Falun Gong by burning books about it, spraying its followers with water cannons and deafening them with loud sirens.

Instead, the Chinese meditation is spreading, and it's got a grip on Colorado. Now two well-established groups in Denver and one in Fort Collins have joined to bring the technique to Weld County.

About 12 people showed up to the meeting at Farr Library, 20th Street and 59th Avenue, Sunday afternoon to learn about Falun Gong's three main principles: [truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance].

[Practitioner] Guiru Zhang, 31, of Fort Collins, said the meditation focuses on spiritual health, and that's why the Chinese government has failed, so far, to stop its people from practicing it.

"They thought it would be easy to eliminate us," Zhang said. "It's not just a physical practice that can be taken at will."

This month, 53 of the meditation's followers were tortured and killed in China at the hands of authorities, according to the Falun Data Information Center.

The government tried to stop the spread of Falun Gong when it became popular in 1992 because officials perceived it as a threat to communism. Before then, it was passed down generations for thousands of years by word-of-mouth [Editor's note: Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992. Before then, it was passed down privately from master to disciple for thousands of years].

But the ancient meditation is alive and well, with more than 70 million followers in China, and many more around the world.

Zhang started the group two years ago in Fort Collins, where about a dozen people meet weekly in public parks or each other's homes to practice the meditation. He introduced it in Fort Collins, as he is in Greeley, by holding informational sessions in public libraries.

Carla Wolf, 38, of Parker, has practiced Falun Gong for a year. She became interested in the meditation after her friend became nicer after he started studying it.

She's noticed the same changes in herself, saying she has more compassion for humanity.

"The biggest thing is we all have blind spots, things about us that hurt others. All that stuff begins to surface," Wolf said. "A practice like this helps you see things like that."

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