San Diego Union-Tribune:
Local followers
defend sect banned in China
Angela Lau
STAFF WRITER
24-Jul-1999 Saturday
Falun Gong: There is no chanting, no humming.
Just slightly closed eyes, hands reaching slowly upward and outward for
the universe, and quiet recitals of almost poetic Chinese names assigned
each motion.
"I'm energized," said Lili Feng, a 47-year-old assistant
professor at the Scripps Research Institute, opening her eyes. "Now I
can go back to the lab and get some more work done."
Feng, who was raised in China, is a recent convert to Falun Gong, or
Buddhist Law, which teaches physical and spiritual renewal. She said the
discipline is the answer to what she considers moral decline in her
motherland and the world.
"This is an extremely powerful tool," Feng said. "We grew
up being taught by the Communist Party not to believe anything. But I
believe in this.
"This is amazing."
Not so for Chinese authorities across the Pacific Ocean, however. It has
banned Falun Gong practices and is said to have begun a wave of arrests of
Falun Gong practitioners after an April 25 protest drew 10,000 followers
to Beijing's leadership compound.
The demonstrators, who sat together quietly, were protesting their
treatment by the government and were demanding official recognition.
"We have seen what the Chinese government was capable of doing in
1989 (during the bloody suppression of student democracy protesters at
Tiananmen Square)," said Shizhong Chen, a 37-year-old Scripps
Research Institute associate.
"We don't want that to happen again," Chen said.
Whether their beliefs can withstand the Chinese government is unclear.
Just recently, Chinese authorities accused Falun Gong of inciting
disturbance, and a senior government official warned the group not to
"promote superstition."
"We can only hope the rest of the world will help us," Feng
said.
Falun Gong -- founded in China and strictly translated from Chinese to
mean the practice of the wheel of law -- blends traditional Buddhist
principles and Chinese breathing exercises to promote physical and
spiritual well-being.
It claims 100 million disciples around the world, with 70 million in
China, according to local adherents.
In San Diego, 40 followers practice on their own or in gatherings. Their
leaders, fiercely loyal to their cause, on Thursday made public a
statement from Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi, 48, who now lives in New
York.
"We are not against the government now, nor will we be in the
future," Li wrote. "Other people may treat us badly, but we do
not treat others badly."
Indeed, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, has been regarded by
outsiders as an esoteric pursuit.
It has been called a sect, a religion, and even a cult, references that
raise the ire of Dr. Wenyi Wang. She is a second-year resident in
pathology at UCSD's Medical Center in Hillcrest.
"We are not even organized. We practice on our own," she said.
"How can we be a cult or a sect? It's really very misleading."
Founder Li, a former grain bureau clerk in China and referred to as Master
Li by his followers, calls it a form of exercise.
His discipline, which started in 1992, teaches a two-prong approach to
physical and spiritual health. Falun Gong prescribes exercises that look
like Tai Qi movements and advocates the practice of "Truth,
Compassion and
Forbearance," virtues extolled in the 5,000-year-old Chinese
civilization.
The exercises, generally done to music, consist of soft hand motions
performed either standing up with eyes slightly closed or sitting in a
meditative position.
The movements are said to open up the body's channels of energy, balance
the yin and the yang, heal, release stress, promote mental alertness,
relieve pain and improve one's general health.
To advance to a higher level of well being, however, practitioners also
must devote their lives to seeking the truth, being compassionate, and
being tolerant of others and tolerant of hardship.
"It teaches me how to live happily and successfully," Feng said.
"I used to be extremely unhappy. I wanted and wanted and desired and
desired. But the (Buddhist) Law teaches me not to chase success, just do
my best.
"I'm doing better science and I've never been happier."
Chen said Falun Gong taught him to look inward for answers to his
frustrations.
"It teaches me to look in myself first to find the source of
conflict, "Chen said. "When I do that, I don't feel angry. I
don't know what it's like to be angry any more."
After just three months of practicing Falun Gong, Feng and Chen said they
are noticing differences in their behavior and health.
"Shizhong used to get frustrated and say, `I don't want to do this, I
don't care. I'll give up my career if I have to,' " Feng said of
Chen. "Now he's mellowed out."
Feng herself found relief from the pain she used to suffer from edema in
her legs.
Wang says it cured her allergy to latex and her two young children have
not needed to see a physician for two years since she started her family
on Falun Gong. Her sister in China, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis
and was disabled, is walking, she said.
While scientific testing has not been applied to such claims, Feng said
she'd like to try.
"I'd love to do a science project on this -- compare growth factors,
find out why it makes people well, makes them feel young," Feng said.
"Maybe an important gene was altered."
Whatever has happened and whatever the mechanism, Falun Gong apparently is
good for counteracting a certain obsession, Feng said.
Her 12-year-old son, Shizai Xia, has been cured of what she described as a
serious case of "computer-game attachment."
"We don't have to tear him away from the computer any more,"
Feng said.
Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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