Three key issues regarding Falun Gong

1. Why did Chinese government ban on Falun Gong?

Because Falun Gong has committed serious crimes infringing on human rights.

(1) Endangering lives

Under the severe spiritual control of Falun Gong ringleader Li Hongzhi, more than 1000 Falun Gong practitioners lost their lives because they refused to take medicine or see doctor, believing in the fallacy that Falun Gong practitioners should not take medicine when fell ill; several hundred practitioners committed suicide by following Li Hongzhi’s appealing that “you will become immortal once you neglect life or death”; and over 30 innocent people were killed by Falun Gong fanatics. A typical example is the Tian’anmen Square self-immolation incident: on January 23, seven Falun Gong practitioners set themselves on fire on the Tian’anmen Square in order to achieve the so-called “consummation”, resulting in 2 deaths and 3 disabled because of serious injuries.

(2) Seriously infringing upon other people’s rights and freedom of speech of the news media

In 1998, because a news agency in Shandong Province published a news report on a Falun Gong practitioner who had died for refusing to take medicine, Falun Gong organized more than 1,000 Falun Gong members to have besieged the news agency. In May 1998, Falun Gong organized more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners to have besieged Beijing TV station because it reported on a PhD student who suffered schizophrenia because of practicing Falun Gong and obsessed in Li Hongzhi’s fallacies. Before it was banned by Chinese government, Falun Gong had organized over 300 such besieging actions.

So far Falun Gong didn’t ever stop committing crimes and infringing upon other people’s legal rights. According to an incomplete statistics, since June 2002, Falun Gong has attacked Chinese communication satellites for more than 200 times with a total time amounted to over 100 hours. Falun Gong also publicly instigated Falun Gong members to attack public infrastructure for radio and TV broadcasting. There had been more than 100 cases for Falun Gong members to be involved in attacking optical fiber and cable and having illegal TV program broadcasting. Many instigative articles on attacking communication cables can be found on Falun Gong website as well. In October 2002, Li Xiangchun, a Chinese American,also a Falun Gong member, had an abortive attack on the communication cables in Yangzhou City of Jiangshu Province. In the court, Li claimed that although it was true that he had attempted to attack the communication cable, he didn’t violate law since he was to publicize Falun Gong. Falun Gong have systematically sent junks to internet users in Mainland China and made millions of harassing telephone calls to the Mainland Chinese residents. Incomplete statistics indicates that monthly Falun Gong junks sent from overseas to Mainland China amounted to over 30 million.

2. About the issue of religious belief.

Some Americans intended to look on Falun Gong as a religious issue. In fact, Falun Gong had no relationship with religion. In 1992 when Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong, he claimed himself to be a Qigong master so that he could make money by curing disease for others with his alleged “energy”–Qigong, which in turn resulted in some patients died for not having been treated in time. Therefore Li Hongzhi had to resort to other trickeries. He fabricated his theories and made money by selling his books. As it further developed, he eventually resorted to spiritual control to amass money. That is the fact about the evolution of Falun Gong, for which no relationship can be observed with religions. All Li Hongzhi’s theories served to realize his mind control over Falun Gong practitioners. For instance, he said that things in the world had been arranged by him countless years ago; the Nanjing Massacre and Hitler’s killing were caused by changes of astronomical phenomena; he prohibited Falun Gong members from believing in religions, saying that all religions were fake and could not save people from torment, and only Falun Gong could help people escape from the exploding earth. Can such ideas be regarded as religious belief?

3. Policy of Chinese government on Falun Gong.

The policy adopted by Chinese government on the Falun Gong issue is: educating, converting and emancipating the majority of the Falun Gong practitioners who have been deceived by Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong, and to punish, according to law, the few who cherish ulterior motives and disrupt public order. Among the estimated two million Falun Gong members, 98 percent were ordinary practitioners. They have now broken away from Falun Gong and come to normal life with the kind help from the society, their units and families. After their converting, they are not discriminated, but have received certain preferential treatments in their work and living since they have become quite vulnerable after their obsessing in Falun Gong.

Only a tiny number of Falun Gong core members have been punished simply because they have engaged in criminal activities in violation of law instead of having practiced Falun Gong. It is an international practice to investigate the criminal responsibility of those who engage in illegal activities and those who violate the law.

Chinese people support their government’s banning and cracking down on cult Falun Gong, helping and emancipating the majority Falun Gong practitioners and punishing those few Falun Gong members engaged in criminal activities in violation of law. Chinese government must follow the public will and no external factors can stop it from such determination.

Chen Mingxia: I say “no” to lies compounded by Falun Gong

My name is Chen Mingxia, a villager from Dongnanying Village, Dongguang Town, Dongguang County, Hebei Province. I had lost myself in obsession with Falun Gong and became a “devout disciple” under mental control of Li Hongzhi. In those days when I was cultivating Falun Gong, neither exhortations of the family nor the public voices against Falun Gong turned me back and dent my faith in cultivation. However, its organization repeatedly forced me to tell lies, which made me awoke to my error completely.

In 1998 I began to learn Falun Gong. In the beginning, I was deeply attracted by Li Hongzhi’s preaching “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” and “To be good people”. That’s why I became a zealous supporter of Falun Gong. Even after Falun Gong was outlawed in 1999, I did not give up cultivating; on the contrary, following the instructions of the Master, I went to Beijing twice for “protecting the Fa”. I even divorced my husband and severed connections with my father and brothers so as to remove barriers on my way of learning Fa and cultivating Gong. My determination to learn Falun Dafa well made me an outstanding member of the local practitioners. Later on, it was said that a feature article about me was published on the brochure Common People in Dongguang sponsored by Minghui Net.

One day in March 2006, Wang Xiaohua from Beiguan Village of Dongguang Town came to me in secrecy: “Our superior has ordered us to investigate the suicide of Shi Shuyan. Since you are in the same village and used to practice Gong together with her, you are perfect for this assignment.” I took the task and in order to write the report well, I spent about one week visiting her neighbors and fellow practitioners. On the basis of my investigation, I wrote a report about her experience from starting to practice Falun Gong and learn Dafa to finally committing suicide, and gave the report to Wang Xiaohua.

After one week, Wang came to me again and said: “Our superior thinks what you’ve written is not good enough. So I’m sorry, but you have to rewrite the report.” Then I told him that I would make an overall investigation again before re-writing. However Wang Xiaohua said: “You misunderstand me. We are ordered to write about the ‘fact’ that Shi Shuyan had already had mental disease before she began to practice Falun Gong. And about how you and other people tried to prevent her from learning Dafa and cultivating Gong.” I protested immediately: “Shi had been normal before she practiced Falun Gong and we did not prevent her from practicing.” On hearing what I said, Wang said sternly: “That’s an order from our superior. If you follow the order, you are protecting Dafa; otherwise you are destroying Dafa.” With this, Wang left.

I was totally perplexed. I thought about this for a whole night and concluded that Wang Xiaohua was not a real Dafa disciple and maybe she was a devil so jealous of the progress I made in cultivation that he made trouble on purpose to obstruct my Consummation.

I told my fellow practitioners what Wang Xiaohua had said to me and warned them to be alert. It never occurred to me that several days later Mr. Gao, head of Falun Gong Dongguang Assistance Station, found me and rebuked me strongly saying that I was destroying Dafa and if I went my own way, I would be destroyed “body and soul”.

I argued that I was just observing the requirement of “Truthfulness” and I was perfectly right. Gao said coldly: “Obviously you are slow at comprehension. The ‘Truthfulness’ you are talking about is the ‘Truthfulness’ of ordinary society. You have to foster your temperament first, and then you’ll understand that what Wang asked is the real ‘Truthfulness’ in Falun world.” Before he left, he urged me again and again to write the report according to what Wang Xiaohua had told me.

The moment Gao left my home my belief in Falun Gong began to collapse. Would the organization of Falun Gong, which strongly blazoned forth “Truthfulness”, in fact order its disciples to tell lies? After a cautious thought, I decided not to write the report.

I told Mr. Gao my decision and he became furious: “You are too bigoted. You will never reach Consummation.” I was disappointed at his remarks but I still held illusions about the Master. I was convinced that those guys misunderstood the Master.

One day in May 2007, I came upon an article titled Topics in Focus is a lie on Common People in Dongguang distributed by Falung Gong organization. The article said that the program on CCTV called white black, and Shi Shuyan was not a Dafa disciple and she committed suicide on account of mental disease. They supported their argumentation with Li Hongzhi’s words of “psychotics and patients of serious diseases are not fit for practicing Falun Gong”.

It agreed completely with what Wang Xiaohua had said.

Evidently, the person who compounded this lie was not Wang Xiaohua or Mr. Gao. It’s the Master who I used to deem as God that invented this lie. At that moment the sacred image of Li Hongzhi in my mind collapsed, and I realized that the “Truthfulness” in Falun Gong world was anything in favor of the cult. Otherwise, they called it “falseness.”

I finally gave up Falun Gong, yet my family never really gave me up for my being heartless. In 2007, my husband remarried me and my father and brothers forgave me. In 2008 my daughter was enrolled into Dalian University Academy of Fine Arts with excellent marks in the national college entrance examination. I did not suffer “extinction of body and soul” for refusing to tell lies; instead I live a better life than before.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201108/t133415.htm

Russian court bans Scientology books

A court in a Moscow suburb has banned works by the founder of the Church of Scientology, officials said Thursday.

The Shchyolkovo court ruled that “What is Scientology?” and other books by L. Ron Hubbard “contain calls for extremist activities,” the Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.

It said that once the court decision comes into force, scientology books will be put on the federal list of extremist materials banned for release throughout Russia. The court made the ruling following a request by local prosecutors.

Attempts by Russian authorities to ban Scientology literature have been overturned recently. In May, the Russian Justice Ministry removed Hubbard’s books from the list of banned literature after a decision by a court in Siberia was overturned.

Scientology officials said they would protest the latest court decision.

“There have been many legal violations, the case is unfounded and the trial was hasty,” the group’s attorney Sergei Korzikov told The Associated Press. “We could not defend our legal interests.”

The group’s spokesman in Russia, Yuri Maximov, said that Russia is home to “tens of thousands” of Scientology devotees. Russian media have claimed that some powerful businessmen and officials are among Scientology adepts.

Russia’s dominant Orthodox Church has denounced Scientology as a “totalitarian sect,” and the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Moscow city authorities infringed on the group’s rights by repeatedly refusing to register it. In 2007 and 2009 the Strasbourg-based court issued decisions upholding the rights of Russian Scientologists to practice their religion free from unlawful government interference.

Hubbard, a science fiction writer, founded the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology in 1954. It teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems.

The group claims 10 million members around the world, including film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Scientologists say that there are more than 280 million copies of Hubbard’s books distributed around the world.

Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticized by the U.S. State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations and monitor its activities.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/World/201108/t133312.htm

Ling Yutai: price of “Ascension in Broad Daylight”

I’m Ling Yutai, born on September 20, 1970, living in Qinggou Village, Qinghe Town, Ji’an City, Jilin Province. My brother and I are orphans, brought up by the villagers. As an adult, I had a strong body luckily and was good at farm work. In addition, I did part-time job in slack season. There was no difficulty in living. However, I became an absolute disabled man due to obsessing with Falun Gong heresy “Ascension in Broad Daylight”.

In August 1997, the famous upstart in village, Bu Jingwen, organized Falun Gong training class. I went to have a look with curiousness and found my brother also practicing there. Bu Jingwen told me, “Falun Gong is of advantage, you can go to heaven and live a happy life after Consummation.” I asked, “Are there big house and virtuous wife in the Paradise?” He smiled and said, “Of course! There is anything you want! Ask your brother is it true or not.” My brother nodded subconsciously.

Since Falun Gong could make “all wishes come true”, I joined the group without hesitation. At first, I practiced it in the morning and evening. As time passed by, I ignored everything including farm work and addicted myself to Falun Gong. To master Falun Gong better and make remarkable progress, I spent 2000 yuan, which was prepared for house decoration, on some books and CDs of Falun Gong and a VCD player. Every day, I locked myself in the room to practice Falun Gong, dreaming that one day I could fly to the heaven and live a happy life. But it was blind and mechanical.

After a long time, I went astray and sunk in the Falun Gong and could not get myself away from it. Practicing Falun Gong, studying the Fa and going up a higher level were all what I was thinking. The illusions of being the Buddha always appeared. I became nervous and insane.

I was fanatical about Falun Gong and angry about the State because the State banned Falun Gong by law in July 1999. Several Falun Gong practitioners and I secretly organized activities such as “spreading the Fa” and “clarify the truth” according to the requests of Master Li. We all believed that only in that way could we go to heaven sooner.

To show my sincerity for Falun Gong, I was totally willing to take out 20,000 RMB as Falun Gong special fund, which was earned from part-time job and was used for the wedding.

One morning of December 2004, it was rather cold. I was practicing Falun Gong beside the stove, then suddenly I felt my body light, as if I was going to fly. I was in a daze and saw the Master waving in the air. I open my eyes wide at once but couldn’t have a clear vision.

I realized it was time to fly to heaven and there was no time to hesitate. I got up quickly, rushed out and cried “Master, wait”. When I ran to stone bridge in the east of the village, I indistinctly found Master Li staring at me in the air. I was so excited and jumped high, but lost conscious immediately.

When I came to life, I was lying in the Patient Room with body bandaged. Later, I knew that I fell in a faint for the big shock when jumping off the bridge. After a period of time, I was found in the snow by a passerby. Police officers soon arrived, sent me to Tonghua People’s Hospital. I was saved, but also turned to be disabled for life.

My brother heard the news and came back from his working place thousand miles away. He could not help crying bitterly, “It is all my fault! At that time, I just wanted to help you find a spiritual sustenance, and cultivate character. I never expected that you went astray and became like this. How can I face our dead parents?” Next year, my brother deposited his savings from part-time job into my account as my basic living expense. Then, he left home for White Mountain and became a monk.

Now, I repented and determined to make a clean break with my lamentable past. My right leg was badly frostbitten, so I walk staggeringly. Because of badly frostbite, my skin is quite rough. I have only fine fingers left, including the thumb of left hand and index, middle, ring, little fingers of right hand. A forty-year-old man is as poor as a church mouse.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201108/t133133.htm

Free newspaper?

One day last week the way into Victoria tube station was clogged with people, and once I finally got to the entrance the gates were shut in my face. They do this occasionally when the station gets so full that there’s an imminent prospect of people being shoved off the platforms and onto the track. It can be some time before they re-open, so it wasn’t worth waiting. As I trudged off wearily in the general direction of the office, more or less reconciled to being late, this publication was thrust at me. I have the old commuter’s instinctive tendency to ignore everyone in my path, especially those who are trying to give or sell me something, but for once, perhaps because of the depressing circumstances, I took it.

You may have seen something like it: apparently versions of it are published all over the world. It looks pretty much like a normal newspaper, and many of the articles are straightforward, readable stuff: they may seem a little underpowered somehow, and the cartoons are profoundly unfunny, but it’s not like picking up the ‘Invest in Zambia!” pull-out supplement by mistake. However, a slightly closer examination reveals a special interest in the affairs of China, and a distinctly negative view of the government of the People’s Republic. In fact, the thing is published by Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is like an exercise system with mystical ambitions. Once well-favoured in China, it is now proscribed: some say that the Chinese government is especially sensitive about it because of the precedents in Chinese history for rebellions led by religious sects.

What strikes one most forcibly, though, is what a colossal waste of money and effort the newspaper represents. Of the commuters streaming past, I suppose one in ten took a copy. I should guess no more than half of those read any of it. Perhaps one in ten of those read the articles on Chinese issues: and probably one in a hundred of those changed their opinion. Not even one in a thousand (if there were that many) wrote to their MP or did anything else about it. Net impact on UK and world politics, zero. One of my colleagues probably typifies the general response – when he saw me with my copy he told me he hadn’t taken one because he thought it was produced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

If anything, the covert manner of operation embodied in the paper is likely to alienate people, and the vast resources expended in producing it raise suspicions. The journalists involved would surely do better to work as freelances and offer straight pieces on Falun Gong and its problems to mainstream publications wouldn’t they?

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/puop/201108/t133081.htm

Falun Gong member Wang Qiuying sentenced

On August 16, 2010, Shanghai Putuo District People’s Court announced that Falun Gong practitioner Wang Qiuying, who committed the crime of credit card fraud, was sentenced to a term 5 years imprisonment and fined 50,000 yuan.

Wang Qiuying, female, born on October 12, 1946, Han nationality, junior middle school education, is a retired worker. Wang began to practice Falun Gong in 1998, and soon became a backbone as well as the assistants of the Falun Gong practicing spot. From 2001 to 2007, she had been to Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shandong, Tianjin and Guangxi provinces and autonomous regions, for spreading Falun Gong. During this period, she cheated Xia Bei, Zheng Kang, Zhang Jian and other fellows of 240,000 yuan in the name of collecting funds to support the Falun Gong media outside.

In addition, from 2006 to 2008, Wang applied for credit cards from Ping An Bank, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communications, Guangdong Development Bank respectively, then overdrafted and withdrew cash. Till August 2010, she didn’t return a total principal amount of 120,000 yuan.

On June 6, 2010, Wang Qiuying was detained by Shanghai Public Security Bureau Putuo Branch because of guilty of credit card fraud; the same year on June 28, Shanghai Putuo District People’s Procuratorate approved the arrest.

Shanghai Putuo District People’s Court held that the defendant Wang Qiuying, for the purpose of illegal possession, violated credit regulations, exceeded the overdraft limit, and still didn’t return the huge arrearage even after collection by the issuing bank, which constituted credit card fraud crime. In accordance with “Criminal Law of the PRC” Article 196 and Article 64 and “Interpretations of The Supreme Court and The Supreme Procuratorate on Some Issues Concerning the Specific Application of the Law Governing Criminal Cases for Prejudice to the Credit Card Management” Article 6, the defendant Wang Qiuying committed the crime of credit card fraud, was sentenced five years imprisonment and fined 50,000 yuan.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201108/t133006.htm

7 indicted in slaying of boy, woman here

Seven members of a supposed Durham-based cult known as the “Black Hebrews” have been indicted on charges involving the deaths of 5-year-old Jadon Tyrell James Higganbothan and 29-year-old Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy.

The two victims had been missing for months before their decomposed remains were found in early June behind a 2622 Ashe St. home in East Durham.

Authorities allege the two were shot to death.

The grand jury has indicted the following Black Hebrews members on a variety of charges:

– Pete Lucas Moses Jr. — indicted for two counts of murder.

– P. Leonard Moses — indicted for accessory after the fact to the first-degree murder of Antoinetta McKoy.

– Shelia Moses — indicted for accessory after the fact to the first-degree murder of Antoinetta McKoy.

– Vania Rae Sisk — indicted for murder and indicted for accessory after the fact to the murder of Jadon Tyrell James Higganbothan.

– LaRhonda Renee Smith — indicted for murder; indicted for accessory after the fact to the murder of Jadon Tyrell James Higganbothan; indicted for felony breaking or entering and larceny after breaking or entering.

– Lavada Quinzetta Harris — indicted for murder; indicted for accessory after the fact to the murder of Jadon Tyrell James Higganbothan.

– Sheilda Evelyn Harris — indicted for accessory after the fact to the first-degree murder of Antoinetta McKoy.

Sisk is the mother of the slain boy. Pete Lucas Moses Jr. is the reported leader of the Black Hebrews.

McKoy and Jadon lived in a home at 2109 Pear Tree Lane with other members of the Black Hebrews before their disappearances.

In an affidavit for a search warrant filed earlier this year by the Teller County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office, a detective said he was told that Sisk had left Durham with a group of Black Hebrews followers and headed to Colorado with only three of her four children.

Investigators searched the home where Sisk was staying in Colorado and couldn’t find Jadon. Social services took custody of 10 children at the Colorado home, including three of Sisk’s children.

According to the affidavit, Durham investigators said their information came from a confidential informant — a former member of the Black Hebrews — who had reportedly escaped from the group.

The informant said Jadon was shot by a member of the group in October, wrapped in plastic, put in a suitcase and placed into an attic in the house.

The report said the body began to smell and was later removed.

The affidavit quoted an informant as saying that in February, McKoy, got into an argument with a member of the Black Hebrews over car keys that could not be found. McKoy ran out of the house, flagged down a female passer-by and requested help. She got into the car and two women from the home came out and told the passerby that everything was OK and escorted McKoy back to the home.

According to the affidavit, a member of the group gave a woman in the house a 9mm handgun and told her to watch McKoy. He returned later and told her to shoot McKoy, which she did. The man then helped both women remove McKoy’s body from the house and buried her.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/World/201108/t132847.htm

Removing Karma leaves me permanently crippled

I’m Miao Xiangtu, 46 years old, living in Zhangcun Town, Jiangshan City of Zhejiang Province. My dad is a retired teacher and mom a peasant. Though not rich, we lived a peaceful and comfortable life. At the age of 28, I suffered from ankylosing spondylitis. Thanks to prompt and appropriate treatment, the disease was brought under control and I was able to live a normal life by and large.
I had had a dream of living my life to the full. I had dreamt of making a fortune by growing and selling local specialties in my hometown, then marrying a nice woman and living a happy life with her. But all my hope was dashed by the sudden interruption of Falun Gong.
One day in July 2000, Ms. Liao, my dad’s former colleague came to visit him who happened to be out on business. Since I was the only one staying at home, we had a chat that day, and she mentioned Falun Gong to me. She said that Falun Gong was a cure-all free of charge that could cure all illnesses in the world, and suggested I have a try. She even brought me books like Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun, and some CDs about it. “A cure-all?” It sounded ridiculous to any sane man! I turned her down with a smile.
However, she since came to visit me frequently and talked to me every time about the “miraculous functions” of practicing Falun Gong like curing all diseases, and the ideas of practicing it to reduce karma and become a God in the future. Maybe I was desperate to cure my disease that I started wavering under her persistent preaching, and her words seemed to make some sense to me. She had been my dad’s colleague for years, I told myself, there was no reason she could have tried to cheat me. Plus, trying to do me harm would do her no good. So why not just have a try since it’s helpful to my condition? With that in mind I started practicing with her by sitting in meditation.
Two weeks later, because of regular activities every day, I felt my waist and leg pains easing, and I seemed to be more energetic. And I also “discovered” the reason for my change in the books she brought me: The Master says that when you are in trial and tribulation, Compassion will help you pass through them; and my Law Bodies will guard and protect you, but you must go through the test. I was naive to think that fortune was so kind to let me find the secret remedy for my disease and pains, which made me more determined on doing cultivation.
To become a real Dafa disciple as soon as possible through intensive cultivation to reduce karma, every day I kept on learning Dafa from the books and practicing it by sitting in meditation to cultivate my spirit and body at the same time, as required by Li Hongzhi. I spent four hours in the day sitting in meditation and kept reading Dafa and reciting the scriptures all night long. Thus I stopped bothering about any family responsibilities.
At that time I was often tormented by severe pains from my illness. Every time the pangs became unbearable I encouraged myself with what Master said, “As you are a practitioner, you should be clear as to why this kind of incident takes place: It’s because that “thing” came, and it was asking you to pay for your karma. To resolve these sorts of incidents, you have to keep yourself under control during those moments and watch your xinxing. Be appreciative and thankful that your spouse has helped you pay for your karma.” So I was stupid enough to think that Master had eliminated the cause of all diseases and pains, and that I was sure to reach Consummation if steadfast in cultivating.
So by and by I fell into the abyss…To cure my disease as soon as possible, I followed the requirements for removing karma to the letter, no medicines, no doctors. I was filled with thoughts of removing karma to “”be elevated” and reach “Consummation”. So I stopped taking medicine and had been sitting in meditation for many hours to practice every day, which aggravated my condition. I became dull and emaciated from repeated tearing pains. But I persisted in the cultivation despite all the suffering, clinging to what Master said as my belief. He said that suffering came naturally from removing karma in the process of cultivation, that no one could “accumulate Gong Powers” without experiencing the pain, that how could anyone remove his “attachments” in ways other than this?
When my condition started to worsen more quickly since September 2000, all my family members who cared about me and our kind-hearted neighbors tried to persuade me to go to hospital for treatment. But I dismissed their persuasion and replied with full confidence: “What do you know about this? This situation is normal showing that Master is guiding me to purge my body. Should I take medicines, I would press the karma back into my body, which will lead to Heaven’s punishment. You are only doing me harm trying to persuade me. Leave me alone. I won’t go to the hospital even threatened by death!” As I argued with them I recited “when you can stay steadfast we can eliminate karma” again and again, wishing to ease my pain.
And it continued till early October 2000. That day I started sitting in meditation at home as usual. Only a few minutes later, I began to feel dizzy and sick. Things blurred before my eyes. Sweat poured down my pale face. Then I vomited, passed out and fell on the floor. Fortunately dad found what happened and with the help of a neighbor sent me to the county hospital for emergency aid. It was diagnoses as temporary stupor caused by low fever, asthenia, loss of weight and plus anemia induced by ankylosing spondylitis complications. The doctors reproached my parents:“Your son’s disease has been so serious! Why didn’t you make him take medicines?” I came back to life slowly after days of emergency treatment.
As I came around, I uttered the words unknowingly: “Master has summoned me. And he was beckoning me.” All my family sobbed at the scene. Dad touched my forehead, tears running down his weathered face, and said: “Poor son! You had barely escaped death! And you still believe that Master so much? Don’t you know what happened?!”
Taken good care of by my family, I had recovered a little. All my family members insisted that I should go to a bigger hospital to be examined. The doctor also advised me to go to a big hospital in Hangzhou for a thorough check. Finally, after several refusals, I took their advice and had a check in a big hospital. The doctors told me after consultation that I had missed the best opportunity for treatment, and that they regretted to tell me I might remain handicapped for the rest of my life. I burst into tears at the news and lost all hope of life. There were several times I wanted to end my life. It was only because of the caring company of my family that I managed to walk out of the darkest hour slowly.
Slowly I began to look back at what happened: “Didn’t Li Hongzhi say his Law Bodies would protect me? Why didn’t he appear when I was dying? Why had all my devoted cultivation only worsened my condition instead of curing it as my karma was being removed? Was it the cultivation aimed at my early departure from this life?”
Now the dream I had long cherished of going to the big world outside and making a fortune has turned into a luxurious illusion. Now I’m a useless man confined to bed all the time, unable to sit up and finish my meal by myself when the disease strikes. Even when it’s no so severe, the best thing I can do is walking a few steps with the help of crutches. As I grow old even faster, I feel unprecedented helplessness and pain with a lonely and miserable old age in store for me. It was Falung Gong that strangled my hope, and it is Li Hongzhi that wrecked my health and happiness.

Original text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201108/t132133.htm

Cult leader held

AN Australian national wanted for charges ranging from tax evasion and assault to illegal possession of firearms and explosives has been taken into the custody of Immigration authorities.
Agape Ministries pastor Rocco Leo Agape was caught on Sunday, June 19 after a combined raid by the police, Transitional Crime Unit and the Department of Immigration.
The leader of the controversial Agape Ministries, which Australian authorities have described as a doomsday-type cult, is also said to have tried to hide AUD$5million (FJ$9.3m) hours before his financial assets were frozen.
Arms and explosives were also found in containers linked to the group as well as on its properties with relatives of members with children expressing concerns over their wellbeing.
After more than a year on the run from Australian authorities, Mr Agape, who had also been sighted in Vanuatu, was caught at Tiri Villas in Deuba.
Mr Agape, whom director of immigration Major Nemani Vuniwaqa confirmed entered the country last month, was apprehended along with a female.

 

Major Vuniwaqa said: “The pair are being detained for overstaying their visitors’ permits along with a third male who arrived in the country with the pair last year.
“The third individual handed himself to the authorities at around midday on Tuesday.”
Investigations into the trio’s whereabouts and activities over the past 12 months continue.
Original text from:
http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/World/201107/t131924.htm

Qigong chop suey: my personal opinion of Falun Gong

In Li Hongzhi’s A Brief Statement of Mine, he says, “Falun Gong is simply a popular qigong activity.” (www.falundafa.org). The exercises and meditations he recommends are, in my opinion, good qigong. However, the philosophy of Falun Gong is a mish-mosh of bizarre beliefs about Buddhism, Taoism, and UFOs. However, the scholar in me cringes when I read the Falun Gong materials or when Western media assumes that Falun Gong is representative of Buddhist or Taoist philosophy. Falun Gong is neither Buddhist nor Taoist; it is the personal philosophy of Li Hongzhi blended with messianic and millennial beliefs. I have outlined below several of the most serious errors in Falun Gong philosophy by offering personal commentary.

Automatic Spirituality. Li claims “the falun is constantly rotating, putting the practitioner in the state of cultivation for 24 hours a day. Of all the qigong or cultivation systems known to the public, Falun Dafa is the first and only one that solves the conflicting time requirements for practicing and work or study.” (Brief Introduction of Falun Dafa http://www.falundafa.org) This is a grandiose claim sure to attract followers. Are the cures attributed to Falun Gong a massive placebo effect, the power of expectant trust? I would like to see how long-term followers react to a Beijing traffic jam or how American followers meditate on Tax Day.

Commentary: Spiritual cultivation is like cultivating a field; you must water and nurture it every day. Qigong requires patience and perseverance. There are no short-cuts.

Not An Earth-Friendly Religion. In Degeneration of Mankind and Appearance of Enlightened Beings (www.falundafa.org), Li explains a new theory of evolution, actually devolution. “Man did not come from the evolution of the ape as Darwin suggested.” Instead, “Man has fallen down from different spaces of the universe.” When he does not follow the cosmic laws of a space, he falls down to a lower plane. “To put it in another way, the Earth is a rubbish center of the universe…The bad people of the universe fall down until they have reached the very center of the universe–the Earth.” He continues that the high God does not care about people. He is too far removed from them, regarding human beings as “no better than micro-organisms.” If a high God found this “rotten place” (the earth), he would destroy it. Thus we must be saved by a being closer to our plane of existence, a Buddha, Jesus, or Lao Zi–or perhaps Li Hongzhi?

The fact that life is transient (impermanent, anicca, in Buddhist terms) is all the more reason to pay attention and not miss its passing beauty. The earth is a beautiful place. Wang Wei, Tao Yuan Ming, and other great poets of China would be ashamed of you, Mr. Li.

Delusions of Grandeur? Did Li Hongzhi change his birthday to coincide with the birthday of the Buddha? Li claims that during the Cultural Revolution, his birthday had been misprinted and he only corrected the mistake. The fact that the Buddha was born on the same day is allegedly a coincidence. However, I wonder about the implications of his essay The Buddha Fa and Buddhism. After discussing the common Buddhist belief in Maitreya, the future Buddha, Li states, “At present, I have once again come to this world to teach the Fa [Dharma], and to directly teach the fundamental law of the universe.”

We are all Bozos on the bus. Every person has strengths and weaknesses. All beings have the Buddha nature, that is all are products of the same natural forces of the universe and are equally capable of enlightening an observant student.

Alien Invasion. Li’s belief in other dimensions and “spaces” is evidently more than metaphorical. He told Time Magazine’s William Dowell that aliens arrived on earth around 1900. Some look like humans; others resemble ghosts. They intend to replace all humans with clones. “In terms of culture and spirit, they already control men.” Even the inspiration of scientists is “manipulated by aliens.”

I better not reply. If I am an alien, my words will be suspect. But how do I know that Li Hongzhi is not an alien? No mention of aliens in Buddhism, Taoism, or Qigong.

Gimme that old time religion. Li Hongzhi goes out of his way to criticize Zen Buddhism. He says that Zen “doesn’t qualify as a cultivation system.” (Zen Sect has gone to Extremes http://www.falundafa.org). He complains that the founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma, was “unable to save others.” An odd statement, since the Buddha was emphatic about his own inability to save others. His dying words were, “Work out your own salvation through diligent practice.” As an additional indication of the Zen heresy, Li claims that Zen Buddhists worship Bodhidharma. Praise and respect Bodhidharma, yes; I have yet to meet a Zen Buddhist who worships him. They don’t even worship the Buddha! Li seems especially frustrated by the Zen concept of nothingness or emptiness (kong, xu, or wu in Chinese, sunyata in Sanskrit): “they even deny the existence of man…They even dare not accept what they have seen.”

Zen is a system of meditation inspired by both Taoism and Buddhism. Instead of worshipping the Buddha, Zen Buddhists seek what the Buddha sought, enlightened awareness. The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, taught that suffering, dukkha, is caused by grasping, tanha. We want what we don’t have and reject what we do have. Only by emptying the mind of self-centeredness can suffering cease. Emptiness also means that nothing exists in and of itself; subject and object exist in relationship (in Buddhist technical jargon this is called co-dependent origination). Emptiness is not the denial of the senses, it is rather ceasing to confuse our concepts about life with that which words describe. It means experiencing the world silently, quietly, without a filter of preconception or belief system.

Emptiness is considered the goal of qigong practice. According to a fundamental tenet of qigong, “Cultivate your bodily energy (jing), then your mind (qi), and finally your spirit (shen). When you cultivate your spirit you will reach emptiness (xu). In the empty state you realize the Tao.” The Taijiquan Classics begin, “Taiji is born of Emptiness.”

Conventional Medicine, Complementary Medicine, and ULTIMATE Medicine. In China Falun Gong, Li states, “If a practitioner takes medicine, it means that he does not believe his disease can be cured through practice…” A true practitioner is “supernormal” and “the diseases an ordinary person suffers from are not allowed to attack him.” (p. 138) Odd that the Buddha may have died from bad pork, esteemed Buddhist Master Suzuki Roshi from cancer, and so many other holy men and women from various human ailments. If only life were so simple, if only goodness and wisdom ensured physical health. But microbes just don’t obey the rules! As Lao Zi said, “Heaven and Earth are not benevolent.”

I am not denying that Falun Gong can be good medicine. Like other qigong systems, scientific studies suggest that it may have positive effects on cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and other ailments. However, one of the largest studies of Falun Gong also states “only when those practitioners upgraded their Xingxing (mind nature and moral level) unceasingly, could the effects be remarkable.” (The Effect of Falun Gong on Healing Illnesses and Keeping Fit…, October 18, 1998 http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/falun/ reports/Survey2new.html)

This suggests a strong placebo effect. The study is also suspect because it only surveyed practitioners–no non-believing “controls” for comparison–and was conducted by a Falun Gong association (FalunGong Zizhuyuan Assistance Center, Beijing). If an organization has a vested financial or personal interest in finding a positive result, it almost always will. This is why western scientific protocol requires that research be judged by independent and, hopefully, impartial referees.

Qigong is complementary medicine and is a powerful adjunct to necessary medical intervention. It is now taught in several U.S.medical schools. I have more physicians in my own teacher training program than people of any other profession. Physicians are willing to study qigong because qigong does not claim to cure all diseases. Qigong is an excellent system of patient education. The more a student practices, the more he or she gains control over those aspects of health that can be controlled. Sometimes genes are stronger than qigong. People get sick in spite of qigong or any other therapy, but qigong gives the patient a better fighting chance.

Kenneth S. Cohen, M.A., M.S.Th. is an internationally renowned health educator, Qigong instructor, and China scholar. He is the author of “The Way of Qigong: the Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing” (Ballantine Books), “Taoism: Essential Teachings” (Sounds True), and more than 150 journal articles. His lectures have been sponsored by the Association of Asian Research Scholars, Zen Mountain Monastery, the Canadian Ministry of Culture, and many universities. He is executive director of the Qigong Research and Practice Center

Original text from:
http://www.facts.org.cn/Views/201107/t131680.htm