Part Two:

What Is

Falun Dafa?

Falun Dafa is a holistic and advanced cultivation practice in accordance with the essential nature of the universe: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. The “cultivation” aspect means improving one’s heart/mind nature and moral qualities in accordance with the universal principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in daily life, in order to reach harmony with the universe. The “practice” aspect is practicing five sets of exercises, each having a specific body purification and strengthening purpose. The movements are slow, elegant, and suitable for people of all ages.

Falun Dafa distinguishes itself from other Qigongs in its connection to and focus on the spiritual root. Most Qigongs center on medical and health benefits; whereas Falun Dafa is about refining one’s mind and moral qualities first and enhancing one’s health secondarily. Through assimilating to the universal principles and practicing five sets of exercises, practitioners are able to achieve inner peace, spiritual purity, physical health, and reach enlightenment in one lifetime. No other Qigong can provide all of these benefits.

All Falun Dafa activities are free of charge and are open to everyone, unlike the majority of other Qigongs. Books and videotapes can be freely downloaded from the Internet. Worldwide practice locations, contacts and other information can be found at www.falundafa.org

Editor's Note: There is a lot on the internet from reliable sources that supports many of David's claims, but in the interests of balance, I wanted to check the Chinese position on their official government website; http://english.gov.cn/

I put the term "Falun Dafa" in the search box and pressed the 'enter' key. The screen went blank; "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page..."

Part Three:

Persecution In China

When Falun Dafa was first introduced to the public in China in 1992, it was very well received by the people and the Government. The transformation of Falun Dafa, from a humble practice known to a few who gathered in a park in northeastern China, to a global phenomenon that includes over 100 million practitioners in over 100 countries, in a few short years, is a remarkable reflection on the righteousness of Master Li Hongzhi’s teachings.

Unfortunately, Falun Dafa’s growing popularity began to concern some Chinese government officials who perceived it as a threat to their power. On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin officially launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Dafa within 3 months—and so began the persecution. Practitioners are harassed, denounced, tortured to death, fined, imprisoned and forced to choose between practicing Falun Dafa and keeping their jobs, education, pensions, homes and families. The government is not content with stopping the practice, it also expects people to totally renounce and denigrate the practice. To this end, severe beatings and torture are employed. As of early February 2002, 370 people have died while in police custody or shortly after release. Because of the government’s restriction on information, it is impossible to determine accurately the exact number of practitioners murdered while in detention. From July 1999 to June 2001, 50,00 people have been illegally detained, 10,000 have been sent to labor camps without any trial, over 600 have been abused in psychiatric facilities, and over 500 have been given prolonged jail terms just for promoting and practicing Falun Dafa. Now in 2012 the above numbers have increased over 10 fold and the cruel persecution continues. The Chinese government have also built over 25 concentration camps, like Auschwitz, mainly for Falun Dafa practitioners, subjecting them to cruel and inhumane treatment. Falun Gong practitioners are also victims  of live organ harvesting throughout China, where over 80,000 organs transplanted by the state since 1999 have been unaccounted for.

Jiang Zemin declared Falun Dafa to be illegal, evil, and subversive to justify his extensive and severe persecution tactics. On June 10, 2001, China passed a new legal directive allowing the death penalty to be invoked in certain instances.

Many kind-hearted people, human rights organizations, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and other groups around the world, have spoken out and condemned Jiang’s severe persecution of Falun Dafa. Your help can make a difference. Here are some things you can do: contact your local Falun Dafa group for more information; write to your government representatives expressing your concern; sign petitions circulated by local practitioners. Or check out www.faluninfo.net

In conclusion, I hope that this brief article will raise your awareness of Falun Dafa and motivate you to look for practitioners in your area and give it a try. Perhaps you will play a part in stopping the persecution in China. Falun Dafa practitioners simply want everyone to benefit from this gentle, non-political, non-violent way of life, and to provide the same opportunity to the people in China without fear for their personal safety.

The author (right) and myself at Battle in Hastings, East Sussex, October 2001.

If you have any questions for David with regard to this article, please send them in to us (see 'Contact' link on the sidebar), I'll be happy to pass them all on and put the answers up on this site at a later date. The adventure continues...