Falun Gong is practiced in Central Park by (from left) Damon Noto, Eliana Chinn, and Xiuhua Liu. (Newsday Photo/Julia Gaines)

June 14, 2003

Irina Lehat, a former mechanical engineer in her 60s, considers herself scientific-minded, but almost every morning she gathers with other Falun Gong adherents on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach to perform the Chinese meditation exercises, which resemble tai-chi.

Lehat, who was raised Jewish and immigrated to Brooklyn 20 years ago from Odessa, Russia, is among the new wave of non-Chinese Falun Gong practitioners in New York. Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual movement that combines study and exercise, and was introduced in China in 1992.

Although banned by the Beijing government in 1999 [...] Falun Gong has gained some international popularity. Highest estimates are about 100 million practitioners in 60 countries, according to Gail Rachlin, a spokeswoman for the Falun Dafa Information Center in Manhattan.

One aspect that attracts non-Chinese adherents is Falun Gong's blending of doctrine and practice, said Andrew Meyer, a professor of Asian religions at Brooklyn College. "It is a practice that integrates the physiological, the moral and the spiritual," he said. "All of these goals have to be pursued simultaneously in order for any of them to be reached." Physical and emotional benefits are the initial attraction of Falun Gong, with spirituality a secondary concern, said Scott Lowe, professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North Dakota who focuses on Chinese religious history. "But the very fact that people continue doing Falun Gong with such dedication pretty much proves to me that they're receiving some sort of spiritual benefit."

The three major principles of Falun Gong -- [...] are truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Although those principles are fundamental, they are hard to carry out, said many practitioners who were interviewed.

"What you are doing is to get back to your original self," said Clearine Hunter, who is in her 60s and was raised a Baptist. "We have been taught to accumulate, thinking that the more we accumulate, the happier you are going to be."

Hunter, an organizer of a Falun Gong group that meets every morning in Prospect Park, also joins a reading group twice a week in Crown Heights, where she lives. She said the study is more important than the exercise.

"When you hear of an exercise, your mind automatically goes to losing weight," Hunter said. "But when I started, I learned that it was cultivating mind, body and spirit, which is something much higher than anything. It's about teaching you to be a good person." Initially, Lehat was taken aback by Falun Gong's teaching to give up materialistic thoughts -- which was against her belief in capitalism -- but, she said, "when I started to read deeper, I couldn't put it down."

Lehat learned about Falun Gong four years ago from a Chinese acupuncturist, Chunyan Teng of Flushing, who had been promoting the practice in her Manhattan clinic. Chunyan was detained in 2000 during a conference in southern China on the banned practice of Falun Gong and sentenced to three years in prison. She was released two months ago and is now back in New York.

Falun Gong adherents here and around the world organize demonstrations and other activities to pressure China to stop suppressing the practice. One campaign focuses on freeing Charles Li, a Chinese-American Falun Gong adherent from California who is serving three years in prison for sabotaging television broadcasts.

Michele Goncalves, 31, an auditor from Monmouth County, N.J., is a regular at pro-Falun Gong rallies in Manhattan. She was introduced to Falun Gong by a Chinese colleague on a business trip three years ago. "I was sitting next to her, so miserable with my gallon of coffee in the morning, and she was bubbly and ready to go. So I said, 'Hey, what's the harm of trying a couple of exercises?'"

She noticed benefits within two weeks, Goncalves said. "All the stress just seemed to pour out of my body... Now, I get up and I am ready to go."

Equally important, she said she saw spiritual changes. "Whenever I am in a conflict, or when I am having trouble with someone, before I used to be pretty closed-minded and always blame the other person," said Goncalves, who was raised a Christian. Through Falun Gong, Adam Montanaro, 33, a computer programmer who lives on the Upper West Side, said he found "a grounded feeling about life."

Raised an Episcopalian, Montanaro practices Falun Gong in Central Park. "Every day, you are looking at your shortcomings and problems and the things that you need to improve."

The practice made dramatic change possible in his life, said Sterling Campbell, a professional musician who has played with prominent bands such as the B-52's and Soul Asylum, as well as touring with David Bowie last year. "I smoked pot and two packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I was extremely depressed and could not function socially without downing a bottle."

During a walk five years ago in Manhattan's Riverside Park, he said he found Falun Gong. "After 21/2 to three weeks, those addictions just went away," he said. He said he was drawn to the practice partly because it is free and has no temple or obligation. "It's about redefining yourself constantly and doing better," said Campbell, who attended Catholic schools but said he did not embrace the religion. Through Falun Gong, "I just became a more considerate, selfless person."

Software developer Scott Chinn, 33, is a self-described "hardcore-science guy" who thought science could explain everything. "I don't like people just to tell me things, and I just believe in them," he said. "I read things, and I try to apply them."

Introduced to Falun Gong by a longtime Chinese friend almost three years ago, Chinn, who lives on the Upper West Side and practices with the Central Park group, said, "I think it's more of clarity of mind, knowing what's right and wrong."

Agnostic until college, when he declared himself an atheist, Chinn said Western spirituality never clicked with him. "I read the Bible and didn't understand anything. But after I studied Falun Gong, I could understand Christianity better. It is fundamental, and it gets to the core issues."

"You change internally. It's hard to explain, but it's little by little," said Chinn's wife, Eliana, who is in her 30s and was raised a Catholic. "You work out your own salvation. You change in your daily life, not just on Sunday morning when you go to Mass."

Larry Tung is a freelance writer. This story was supplemented with Associated Press reports.

http://www.newsday.com/features/religion/ny-faith0614,0,4417346.story

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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media