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 | "Fa" means the law and principles of the universe. |
| "Lun" means wheel. |
| "Da" means great. |
Falun Dafa may be translated as "the great law wheel."
"Gong" is an abbreviation of "Qigong" which means "cultivation and practice." So Falun Gong may be translated as "cultivation and practice of the great law wheel." 1
The practice of Falun Gong is composed of two components:
| A moral philosophy for self-improvement, and |
| Five sets of "qi" exercises, done to Chinese music and involving lotus postures and hand movements. Qi "refers to the most fundamental concept of the Chinese cosmology and has been interpreted as 'steam' or 'breath,' the life-force, the fundamental element of the Creation and the energy of every form of existence, including human bodies." |
Falun Dafa is the spiritual movement that practices Falun Gong. Increasingly, the movement itself is being called Falun Gong.
Some terms used by the Falun Dafa:
| "Cultivation," as used in Falun Dafa, is an Eastern concept. It involves the development and transformation of one's entire being -- body, mind and spirit. "One literally 'cultivates' their qualities like a garden, planting seeds of goodness and not letting that goodness be damaged by circumstances or events." 4Dafa means Great Law or universal principles. | ||||||
| Dharma was originally a
Sanskrit word. It is commonly used by Buddhists.
It can refer to:
| ||||||
| Fa: The law. | ||||||
| Falun means law wheel; | ||||||
| Gong means the cultivation of energy and capabilities. | ||||||
| Qi: The body's vital energy | ||||||
| Qigong: a set of Chinese breathing exercises. |
Symbol:
The Falun Dafa symbol is circular and is composed of a central,
counterclockwise-pointing srivatsa symbol, 
a symbol of the Buddha School
which means to be fortunate. It has also been used in Jainism, Hinduism,
Christianity, Judaism, and by the ancient Greeks, Germanic tribes, and Native
Americans. 15[The Nazi party
in the 1930s adopted the symbol, distorted it, and called it a swastika; this is
a German translation of the original sanskrit word "srivatsa."]
The srivatsa is surrounded by:
| four smaller srivatsas |
| two red/blue Yin-Yang symbols |
| two red/black Yin-Yang symbols. |
It is viewed as a miniature model of the universe. Some advanced practitioners are believed to see the symbol revolving. "When Falun rotates clockwise, it can automatically absorb energy from the universe. While rotating counter clockwise, it can give off energy. An internal clockwise rotation offers salvation to oneself while an external rotation offers salvation to others." 5
This essay continues below.
Sponsored link:
Important texts:
| Li Hongzhi, "Zhuan Falun (Revolving the Law Wheel)." (1994) An English translation is available online at: http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/zflus.html |
| Li Hongzhi, "China Falun Gong." An English translation is available online at: http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/flg.htm |
Main beliefs and practices:
According to spokesperson Caroline Lam in Sydney Australia: "Falun Dafa is not a cult and not a religion and not a sect. There is no leader, there is no form of worship or rituals. Falun Dafa is not involved with politics or against any government." 6
| Practices:
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| Policies:
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| Racism:
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| Beliefs:
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How to make a million dollars: The James Randi Educational Foundation, a Florida-based group, offers a prize in excess of one million dollars in U.S. funds for anyone who can prove that they have certain super-normal abilities. Some of the above talents may qualify. Opening one's third eye would almost certainly be eligible for a try at the prize. The Foundation evaluated a person with who had claimed this precise functionality. The individual failed. 11
As noted above, FalunGong, teaches that the operation of the third eye is inhibited at certain levels. This would make it difficult for a practitioner to prove their ability during a scientifically designed study.
Beliefs about homosexuality:
The Falun Gong movement appears to treat homosexuality -- presumably homosexual behavior not homosexual orientation -- as a degenerate behavior, on a par with sexual promiscuity:
| Founder and current leader Li Hongzhi delivered a lecture in Sydney, Australia in 1996. 7 In it, he made a passing reference to homosexuality: |
"...the morality of human society has altogether declined. The moral values in people’s hearts have been corrupted. When there is no righteous mind, it means that the Fa [law, principle, way] is no longer effectual. When the Fa is no longer effectual in human society, mankind will decline. ...The change in human society has been quite frightening! People would stop at nothing in doing evil things such as drug abuse and drug dealing. A lot of people have done many bad deeds. Things such as organized crime, homosexuality, and promiscuous sex, etc., none are the standards of being human." (Emphasis ours).
| In New York City during 1997, he said during a lecture: |
"I often say that humankind has gone through different historical periods before arriving at this day. In other words, many, many times humankind was wiped out after experiencing catastrophes at different points in history. ...Some people talk about how great Greek culture was, but where did those people go? Today something from Greek culture can be found: The elements of Greek culture that have been left are definitely from the final period of Greek civilization’s development, and we’ve found that there was homosexuality in it as well, along with promiscuous sex, and in addition, life was really extravagant and wasteful, corrupt, and terribly degenerate; we can see that humankind had already deteriorated terribly....Aren’t humans in a dangerous state? Your government permits something, your country permits it, your nation permits it, and even you approve it in your thinking, but it isn’t necessarily good. That’s why if you look at today’s society you can see that drug use, drug trafficking, drug making, sex changes, homosexuality, sexual freedom, organized crime, etc., emerge in an endless stream. Selfishness and desires have made people enemies of one another and without any righteous thoughts. All kinds of phenomena of a degenerate human society abound." (Emphasis ours). 8
Beliefs about illness and healing:
In a book, founder and current leader, Li Hongzhi, contrasts qigong healing treatments with those found in conventional hospitals:
| Hospital tests and examinations cannot detect the fundamental cause of an illness. This is because medical tests can only function in "this dimension and cannot see fundamental causes that exist in other dimensions." |
| The actual cause of illness is not a virus or bacterial, or some other pathogen. It is karma. |
| "The root cause of the patient’s illness is an intelligent entity that exists in another dimension." |
| Qigong masters are able to use their super-human vision to see the internal functioning of their client's body, much like a CAT scan. 9 |
Falun Dafa information sources on the Internet:
| Falun Dafa at: http://www.falundafa.org/ |
| Falun Dafa: Cultivation of the essential nature of the universe, at: http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~dayong/pgcks.html This is a New England group. |
| A Canadian Falun Dafa group is at: http://www.falundafa.ca/ |
| A list of worldwide contact groups is maintained at: http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~dayong/pgcks.html |
| Falun Dafa in North America maintains an large Falun Dafa information package at: http://www.minghui.ca/eng/info_pak/info_index.html |
| The China Internet Information Center maintains a list that is critical of the Falun Dafa. It is titled "Safeguard the well-being of the people: Further expose and criticize the cult - Falun Gong" See: http://ppflg.china.com.cn/indexE.html |
Books on Falun Dafa:
| Li Hongzhi, "China Faun Gong, Revised edition," (2000). Read dozens of reviews or order this book |
| Danny Schechter, Ed., "Falun Gong's challenge to China: Spiritual practice or 'Evil Cult'?," Akashic Books, (2000-SEP) Read reviews (when they become available) or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store |
| John Wong, William Liu, "The mystery of China's Falun Gong: Its rise and its sociological implications," World Scientific Publ. (1999). A scholarly book on Falun Gong. Read reviews or order this book. |
References used:
- "What is Falun Gong / Falun Dafa: Frequently Asked Questions," Friends of Falun Gong Ontario," at: http://dawn.thot.net/
- "The living Darmah: website of West Covina Buddhist temple," at: http://www.livingdharma.org/
- "Dharma the cat," at http://www.dharmathecat.org
- "Introduction of Falun Dafa," at: http://www.falundafa.org/
- "The Falun (Law Wheel): The Falun Emblem," at: http://www.mindspring.com/
- "Falun Dafa followers reject cult status," Agence france-Presse, 1999-MAY-3.
- Li Hongzhi, "Falun Dafa: Lecture in Sydney," at: http://www.falundafa.org/
- Li Hongzhi, "Teaching the Fa in New York City," at: http://faluncanada.net/library/english/usa/usa_e.doc
- Li Hongzhi, "Falun Gong: Qigong Treatments and Hospital Treatments," at: http://www.falundafa.org/
- Li Hongzhi, "Gong potency and supernormal abilities," at: http://falundafa.org/
- The James Randi Educational Foundation has a home page at: http://www.randi.org
- Craig Smith, "China cracks down on mysticism," The New York Times, 2000-APR-30, at: http://www.nytimes.com/
- Craig Smith, "Sect Clings to the Web in the Face of Beijing's Ban," The New York Times, 2001-JUL-5, at: http://www.nytimes.com/
- "Introduction: 'Totally Expunge Evil, Pursue it to the End.' Explaining the Crackdown on the Falun Gong," Leiden University, at: http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/bth/aalderink/introduction.html
- "Historical note on the Swastika," Falun Dafa, at: http://www.falundafa.org.il/
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Site navigation: Home page > Faith groups > Falun Gong > here |
Copyright © 1999to 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 1999-NOV-26
Latest update: 2005-JAN-12
Author: B.A. Robinson
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