Falun Gong - A practice wrongfully accused as a religion with malicious intent.
Falun Gong:
A practice wrongfully accused as a religion with malicious intent
By Sylvia Simson
992-11-4219
Recitation TA: Claudio Benzecry
World Cultures: China
Thursday, December 5th, 2002
Post-Mao Chinese society subsists within the Communist governance system that has been enforced since the triumph over the Nationalist Party in 1949. A government that controls literally every aspect of Chinese lifestyle, the Communist Party leaves little room for any form of liberty, whether it is regarding the size of your family or your religious preference. In particular, the regime stands strongly against any new organization, affiliation, or movement with a unique ideology, and insists that an organization or a movement must undergo complete state-control before it is officially legalized. The fundamental reason behind this suppression of non-governmentally controlled innovative beliefs is simple: fear. China has a historical precedent for fear of new groups or organizations, particularly if they are large with a captivating leader, as every past form of political uprising has involved a large mass of people lead by a charismatic leader. The Communist Party is constantly concerned with the idea that another large movement will be able to defeat their own degenerating administration, mainly because of the vast amount of anti-Communist protestation that has occurred over the past few decades.
Falun Gong, interchangeably known as Falun Dafa, is therefore openly susceptible to the Communist Party’s attack. It is a movement that is neither state-run nor state-appreciated, and its popularity is astounding - since its public inauguration in 1992 by its founder Li Hongzhi, the movement has grown to such an extent that it has more members than that of the Communist Party. Said to be a practice and not a religion, the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong aims to attain improvement in this life (rather than achieving an afterlife) and health benefits by simply studying the practice’s teachings and by performing five meditative exercises. Falun Gong’s overall purpose can be seen in the literal sense of its name, “Dharma wheel practice”- the Dharma wheel is a literal form of inner energy that rotates within the human body and unites an individual with the rotation of the cosmos. Falun Gong movement members trust that focusing the mind on a visualized wheel spinning within the center of the body will allow for spiritual healing, which in turn will lead to biological healing (such as preventing and curing illnesses, provoking well-being and extending one’s lifetime). As the movement attempts to cultivate Truth, Benevolence, and Forbearance, which are referred to as the supreme principles of the universe, during the performance of the exercises, it is possible to see how an outsider might perceive the movement as a religion rather than as a health practice because of the lack of distinction between what is spiritual and what is physical. However, members of Falun Gong see their exercises as something they do, not something they believe, and therefore do not consider Falun Gong a religious movement.
