|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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."
|
