Aug. 9, 2000

Members of a movement that has been banned by the Communist authorities in China brought their message of meditation and mind-body integration to Regina Tuesday.

Curious passers-by in Victoria Park watched as four Falun Dafa practitioners from Toronto demonstrated their graceful exercises and distributed literature to explain what they're all about.

Falun Dafa --- also known as Falun Gong --- involves a series of five exercises that adherents say open up energy channels within the body. These channels can become blocked through illness, bad habits like alcohol and smoking, or even from bad posture. The exercises allow the body to release negative energy and absorb beneficial energy from the universe, and have positive effects on moral development, say practitioners.

The movement was outlawed in China in July 1999, officially because it was "spreading fallacies and jeopardizing social stability." Thousands of practitioners have been beaten, arrested or threatened; 24 have been killed.

Practitioners suggest the real reason for the Chinese government's alarm is the speed with which the movement has grown since its introduction in 1992. The number of adherents within China is estimated at over 70,000 (should be 70 millions editor) --- more than the membership of the ruling Communist Party.

Student Wei Hua gave up her summer job to come to Regina and help spread the message of Falun Dafa. She says the practise is not a religion; there are no gods, temples, or rituals. Moral cultivation is attained through reading, meditation, and adherence to the universal principle of Zhen-Shan-Ren (truth-compassion-tolerance).

Hua says although practise has positive effects on emotional and moral well-being, these changes come from within the practitioner, not from external influences.

"Everyone is responsible for their own actions," shi says. "We're nice people doing nice things."

Retired civil engineer Nelson Shou is 76 years old and doesn't look it; he credits the discipline with changing his life.

In 1983, he developed circulatory problems and extreme pain in his right leg. The pain soon spread to his lower back, making mobility difficult. Doctors in Beijing ran test after test, and informed Shou that although he seemed to have heart and kidney trouble, there was nothing they could do for him. He was advised to take painkillers.

By 1993, Shou could barely walk. He spent a month in hospital after five days of excruciating pain left him completely immobile. Again he received no form of treatment except painkillers. He immigrated to Canada, and had to wear down-filled clothes even in summer to ward off the cold he always felt in his limbs. Then in 1995, he began practicing Falun Dafa.

Now, says Shou, his pain is gone. He no longer has to wear bulky clothes and can walk to his Falun Dafa practise. At a checkup in Toronto in 1996, his amazed doctor proclaimed him to be "absolutely normal", Shou laughs. "I carry my seniors' ID with me everywhere because nobody believes I'm a senior."