For the last three years, spring announces that it is time to move the weekly Falun Gong exercises and meditation practice outside to the local parks. Falun Gong is rooted in ancient Chinese culture. Like Tai Chi, it is a qigong practice that people enjoy practicing outside in a public park setting. Falun Gong is different from other qigong practices as it emphasizes not only physical cultivation for health and fitness, but also cultivation of one's moral character in daily life. The exercises--simple and gentle-- combined with cultivating one's heart, often have amazing effects on health, as many of the persons, practicing in Lawrence will testify.

Practitioners practice in a park

Practitioners appreciate Falun Gong for its benefits

Dottie Puckett's eye doctor told her to keep doing what she was doing, as her last eye exam showed no signs of the previously diagnosed macular degeneration. "I told him

that I have been practicing Falun Gong."

The most visible part of the practice is the exercise. However, cultivating the heart is the basis of Falun Dafa. (Falun Gong is also known as Falun Dafa.) This component

is described in traditional Chinese culture as the Dao or the "Way of Nature," and is explained in the books Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun by Li Hongzhi.

Adam Miller, a local massage therapist, states, "In this chaotic and sometimes confusing and scary world, Falun Dafa offers real potential for positive change." The core of the teachings is the three virtues of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.

There are no boundaries with this practice, as all ages, races, ethnicities and walks of life are attracted to it. Three generations of women, Dottie Puckett, age 80, and her daughter, Joyce Mitchell, travel from Baldwin to practice with the Lawrence group. They join granddaughter and daughter Kerrie Mitchell, a University of Kansas biology student. Kerrie is also the Vice President of the Kansas University Student Falun Dafa Association that sponsors a practice once a week.

The exercises and meditation are always taught free of cost by local volunteers and are open to everyone who wants to learn. Traditionally, a qigong practice of this high caliber was only passed down to one student from generation to generation. However, in 1992, the practice was introduced to the public in China. Since then it has grown to 100 million people practicing in 50 countries.

One cannot talk about the beauty of the practice of Falun Gong without telling about the sad and brutal persecution of its members in China. To counteract the slanderous lies and propaganda being related via the government-controlled media in China, at night, banners are being made and hung in public places all over China to be seen by fellow country men, women and children when the morning sun breaks. The banners say things like: "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." The local Lawrence Falun Dafa practitioners have also made banners to help bring attention to this murderous campaign in China.

A new book first released on the Internet on November 18, 2004, and now in hard copy, titled Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, by the Epoch Times provides documented accounts of the last 50 years of the Chinese Communist Parties. The book answers the question, "How can this senseless persecution be happening in this day and age in China?" (www.epochtimes.com or Yih Chyun Corp Publishers, NJ) Since the Internet version release, 3,143,402 people have withdrawn--with public statements--from the Chinese Communist Party, due to its long history of brutality and killing. There are now up to 30,000 persons per day making these public withdrawals.

[...]

August 2005