Deseret News: Falun Gong taking root among Utahns Exercises are a small part of the spiritual practice

Saturday, February 24, 2001

Kan Ng and others practice their Falun Gong exercises on the lawn of the Salt Lake City-County Building. MICHAEL BRANDY, DESERET NEWS

On a Saturday afternoon that is surprisingly warm for the middle of February, Beverly Clark and seven other people are standing on the lawn of Washington Square, in front of the City-County Building. Chinese music from a small tape player wobbles through the air and is nearly drowned out by cars moving past on 500 South, but the men and women move serenely through their Falun Gong exercises: Buddha Showing a Thousand Hands, Penetrating Two Cosmic Extremes, Falun Heavenly Circuit.

Washington Square is 6,000 miles from Tiananmen Square, where five alleged members set themselves on fire in January to protest the government's crackdown on Falun Gong. In Beijing, as in the rest of China, Falun Gong has been outlawed, labeled as an "[Chinese government's slanderous word]." Practitioners have been jailed. There are reports of torture and deaths in prison. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that when Beijing students returned to classes after the Chinese New Year break they were given course schedules emblazoned with slogans such as "Reject Cults in the Schoolyard."

Worldwide, Falun Gong is reportedly practiced by 100 million people, although like many reports about Falun Gong, the figure may or may not be accurate. There are no membership rolls, so there is no real way to gauge the numbers. And because of the tension between the Chinese government and practitioners of Falun Gong, there are claims and counterclaims on both sides.

At the very least, the practice has become pervasive enough in China to panic the government - and to provide one more human rights headache that could keep Beijing from getting the Olympics in 2008.

The Chinese government's discomfort with Falun Gong has spilled over to Hong Kong and, most recently, to Pasadena, Calif., where last weekend the consulate general of the People's Republic of China "lobbied vigorously" to prevent a Falun Gong "experience-sharing conference," according to the Pasadena Star News.

In Utah, the Falun Gong movement is tiny but gaining attention. In January, Mayor Rocky Anderson proclaimed "Falun Dafa Week."

Falun Gong - sometimes also called Falun Dafa (Falun means "law wheel," Dafa means "great way") - is often referred to by the media as a religion or a sect, but it worships no deity. The practice includes traditional qi gong exercises, designed to move healing energy (qi or chi) through the body. Although this is the most visible part of Falun Gong - the exercises are done in public parks in European cities, for example - the exercises are only a small part of the practice of Falun Gong.

The heart of Falun Gong is xinxing (pronounced shin-shing), the cultivation of moral character.

"The gong that truly determines the level of one's energy potency is not developed through practicing exercises," writes Li Hongzhi. "It is developed through the transformation of the substance de (virtue), and through the cultivation of xinxing."

Li, referred to as Master Li by practitioners, introduced Falun Gong to the Chinese people in 1992, bringing together what he says are ancient teachings that combine elements of the Buddha School and Tao, plus qi gong and various other ideas that the Chinese government considers "superstition." Li is now in exile in New York.

"Spiritual practice" is perhaps the best way to describe Falun Gong, says Salt Laker Beverly Clark, who began to practice Falun Gong about a year ago. Clark, who grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says she was drawn to Falun Gong after exploring Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Catholicism, New Age books, tai chi and yoga.

"I wanted answers to things that didn't make sense," Clark says.

When she heard about Falun Gong she figured that, like everything else she had tried, it would be a spiritual dead end. But "I checked out (Falun Gong) books from the library and I'm like, whoa, all the answers I've been searching for were there right before my eyes."

Through the practice of Falun Gong, according to Li, a person cultivates truthfulness, compassion and forbearance (zhen, shan and ren). Like Buddhist schools, it advocates the relinquishment of ego, jealousy and "attachments" - not material possessions or relationships themselves but the desire for them. Like other Buddha schools, Falun Gong believes in karma (basically, what goes around comes around), although Li takes it one step further. "Karma," he writes, "is the primary factor that causes sickness in people."

Through the practice of Falun Gong, he says, people can change the molecular composition of their bodies. Eventually, he says, "metabolism no longer occurs. A person thus transcends the five elements, turning his body into one composed of substances from other dimensions. No longer restrained by our space and time, this person will forever be young."

For every organic and inorganic thing that exists in the dimension we can see, says Li, there exists "an intelligent being" in another dimension.

In Utah, where Falun Gong practitioners meet every Saturday at noon in the Downtown Library (and in good weather at Liberty Park), practitioners such as Clark struggle to understand and explain some of Li's metaphysical concepts.

But all say it has made a difference in their lives. Lin-Chu, who travels to the Salt Lake Falun Gong sessions each week from Ogden, says the practice has made her a more patient, decent person, and has rid her of carpal tunnel syndrome and an ulcer. Sheng Mei, who has practiced Falun Gong since he was a high school student, says that in the four years since then he has not caught one cold.

Although the Chinese government has labeled Falun Gong [Chinese government's slanderous words], "that's propaganda," says Sheng. And the much-publicized reports of the suicide immolation of five people in Tiananmen Square are also propaganda, say practitioners and others.

Washington Post reporter Philip P. Pan recently questioned the allegations of Chinese officials about the Tiananmen immolations. According to Pan, one of the women said to have set fire to herself had not been known to practice Falun Gong, and Falun Gong beliefs discourage suicide. In addition there are other inconsistencies in the government's account, according to American journalist Danny Schechter, author of "Falun Gong's Challenge to China." Schechter is not a Falun Gong practitioner.

"Now, as new questions are raised and doubts expressed, it may turn out that the world media have been misled into becoming an uncritical transmission belt for Beijing's bullying," wrote Schechter earlier this week in an article posted on the Falun Gong clearwisdom.net Web site.

The controversy seems half a world away from the handful of practitioners slowly and calmly moving through the Strengthening Divine Powers exercise in downtown Salt Lake City. But don't use her name, says Clark, pointing to a young Chinese woman gracefully moving her arms above her head. "Her family still lives in China."