Today, Falun Dafa is practiced in over 100 countries around the globe by people of all ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds. The book Zhuan Falun, its main book of teachings, has now been translated into 49 languages (and counting).
Yet, many of the biggest waves in our world start as small ripples, and Falun Dafa was no different. The first Falun Dafa class, held at a middle school in northeastern China, had only around 180 attendees—the size of an introductory college lecture.
Little did these learners know that they would become the first members of a spiritual movement, perhaps the greatest of our time.
Mr. Li Hongzhi gives a lecture in Wuhan City, China, in March of 1993.(Minghui.org)
The First Lecture in Changchun
May 13, 1992, was Mr. Li Hongzhi's 41st birthday. It was also the day that he decided to introduce a new qigong practice to the public, which he named "Falun Gong."
Falun Gong derives from the Buddhist and Taoist teachings that Mr. Li learned from several masters, and combines the core values of these traditional self-cultivation practices. However, in adapting these teachings for Falun Gong, Mr. Li took care to ensure that this practice would fit the rhythm of a modern lifestyle—where most people organized their daily lives around their jobs, families, school work and other social activities.
He preserved the Buddhist and Taoist principles he learned and paired them with simple, meditative exercises. These would become the three principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, as well as the five sets of exercises that characterize Falun Dafa today.
A Falun Gong group practice site at a park in Beijing. Practitioners would often start their day with a quick practice session before school or work.(Minghui.org)
The first Falun Gong lecture series was held at Changchun Fifth Junior High from May 13 to May 22, 1992. The 10-day event in Mr. Li's hometown was hosted by the Changchun Human Body Research Society and garnered roughly 180 attendees. Word soon began to spread about the amazing efficacy of Falun Gong in improving both physical and mental health, from family to family and friend to friend.
Mr. Li held a second lecture series in Changchun before being invited to Beijing for two more series. Soon, he was receiving invitations from qigong societies and governmental bodies across China.
By December of 1994, he had completed 56 lecture series in some of China's biggest cities for 61,500 attendees, including repeats. Without repeats, the number of students was about 20,000.
The Makings of a Nine-Day Lecture
Mr. Li's lecture series usually lasted nine to ten consecutive days. Each day, he would give a lecture that lasted around 90 minutes and then instruct learners in the exercises for 30 minutes. On the last day of the series, he'd dedicate some time for learners to ask questions about anything they didn't understand.
The lectures expounded upon the moral cultivation aspect of Falun Gong, from the cosmological basis for morality to how practitioners could become better people in daily life. To help modern people understand the arcane terms used in self-cultivation, Mr. Li would use the natural sciences and cultural allusions to illustrate his points.
Falun Gong lecture series were priced very modestly, compared to those of many other qigong schools. Each series only cost around 40 to 50 yuan per person, which is roughly $15 to $20 today.
Much of that money went towards renting the venue, printing materials, and paying the sponsoring organizations—Mr. Li hardly kept any of it. Some sponsoring organizations asked Mr. Li to raise his ticket prices since his classes were so popular, but he refused to put extra financial burden on his learners.
Throughout all of Mr. Li's travels across China, he lived quite frugally. One staff member recalled that he rarely even went to restaurants. Most of the time, his meals were instant noodles that he brought for himself.
Expansion in China and Around the World
Though Mr. Li would give his last lecture in China in 1994, Falun Gong continued to spread among the Chinese people. According to the Public Security Bureau of China, an estimated 70 to 100 million Chinese people were practicing Falun Gong as of 1999.
In 1995, Mr. Li would begin to give lectures outside of China. His first lecture series overseas was held in Paris, France, from March 13 to 19, and was hosted by the Chinese Embassy. The same year, he gave his second lecture series outside of China in Gothenburg, Sweden. Lasting from April 14 to 20, this would be the last time that Mr. Li taught Falun Gong to the public. But by then, word of the practice had already spread across Europe and to the rest of the world.
According to available statistics compiled by Minghui.org, Falun Dafa practitioners live in over 100 countries and country-level administrative regions around the world today. This includes 46 countries and regions in Europe, 31 in Asia, 22 in the Americas, 12 countries in Africa, and 3 countries in Oceania—all a testament to how the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance can bring people together regardless of the color of their skin, the sound of their language, or the paths they've walked in life.
Falun Dafa as a “science for life”
Jingduan Yang, MD, LicAc, with John Nania
Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, is a powerful mind and body cultivation system that has its roots in prehistoric China. Surveys strongly attest to Falun Dafa's healing efficacy, in many cases resolving conditions that other therapies could not.
As a physician myself, studying the practice has also helped me further my own understanding of medicine and its relationship with human life. Here, I want to compare three different approaches to medicine, and outline their effects on patients.
A science for disease
Western medicine is based on what we can see and touch. Therefore, in an ironic twist, patients have to be sick enough before they can be treated. If biochemical means, imaging techniques, and pathological methods cannot detect any abnormality, Western doctors do not know what to do. They watch and wait.
Unfortunately, all fatal diseases are at work long before we can detect them with our current technology. By the time we are able to notice any abnormality, it is often too late for treatment. Thus, despite advancements in medical technology, the mortality and morbidity of many diseases have not changed much. The quality of medical care today is still far below our expectations. Let's look at some of the figures.
Every year in the United States, 400,000 to 500,000 people die of coronary artery disease. One million Americans suffer heart attacks. There are 170,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year (mostly from smokers) with about 150,000 deaths. An estimated 140,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed each year, resulting in about 55,000 deaths. About 12 percent of women will develop breast cancer and 3.5 percent will die from it.
There are about 10 million type 2 diabetes cases. There are an estimated eight to 12 million cases of sexually transmitted disease each year. And let's not even mention drug abuse, alcoholism, depression, and the hundreds of other ailments people are suffering and dying from.
What’s even more frightening is that we still do not know the exact cause for many of these illnesses—only that that an unhealthy lifestyle (e.g., a poor diet, excessive drinking, unsafe sexual activity, stress, a lack of exercise) contributes to health problems. As a society, we teach little about harm reduction or prevention, while the cost of treatment only climbs higher and higher. Once afflicted with a disease, patients are totally dependent on external help: doctors, medical devices, and drugs.
This is why we can call Western medicine a “science for disease.”
A science for health
Compared to Western medicine, Chinese medicine can do better in diagnosing and treating illnesses at their early stages if physicians follow traditional principles.
Chinese medicine is based on a system we cannot see—an energetic network of “meridians” that connect all parts of the body. With knowledge of this meridian system, any illness can manifest as abnormalities in the system and can be treated through the system’s points on the body's surface.
Chinese medicine emphasizes prevention. It believes that the best physicians are those who treat people when they are not yet ill. It can cure many ailments before there are any pathological changes that can be detected by biomedicine. Because of this, the cost of treatment in traditional Chinese medicine is substantially lower than that of Western medicine, with fewer side effects and often greater efficacy.
However, this requires patients to take responsibility for a healthier lifestyle, which is why we can call Chinese medicine a “science for health.”
A core tenet of Chinese medicine identifies emotional distress as a key cause of bodily dysfunction. This dysfunction, in turn, makes the body vulnerable to external pathogens.
This is embodied in an old proverb from Chinese medicine, which compared the heart—the organ which is believed to house the mind—to an emperor. If the emperor is not wise, goes the saying, it jeopardizes the other 12 organs in the body. To live a long and healthy life, a person must have “a clean heart with few desires.”
Before I studied Falun Dafa, it was hard for me to understand this saying. I thought that people could only live for the fulfillment of their various desires—biological, psychological, and social. Even if people did want to have a clean heart, how could they clean it?
Falun Dafa answered this question for me.
A science for life
First of all, Falun Gong’s founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, tells us that Chinese medicine originates from a prehistoric culture, and that the body’s meridians are a system that exist in another dimension.
My understanding is that many diseases actually emerge from deeper dimensions, which is why they can be reflected through the meridian system at an early stage. Methods that interact with this system, like acupuncture, can then catch them before they surface in our physical bodies.
Second, Mr. Li tells us that the ultimate purpose of life is to return to our original, true selves. That means that we have to cast aside our attachments, fears, and weaknesses to reveal our true nature, the best version of ourselves that we can be.
In this framework, all the different desires are attachments that cloud our hearts. Going back to that adage from Chinese medicine, a troubled heart engenders negative energy that can then transform into all kinds of diseases.
This view explains why there are so many intractable diseases in our world today—a world built around our every desire. Although our technological advancements fight disease, they can’t save us from our own bad decisions. How could technology change a person’s life if that person doesn’t want to change?
Third, Mr. Li points out that the cultivation of our moral character is the most important way to improve our lives. He also tells us that the mind and the body are one and the same. When a person’s moral character improves, the body’s energy becomes purer, and the person is thus healthier.
I began to understand why people should have “clean hearts” to live long and healthy lives.
As Mr. Li told Time magazine, if one does not want to have an ordinary person's disease, the only way around it is to become an extraordinary person.
By practicing Falun Dafa, people are not simply preventing death: they are learning how to truly live. For this reason, I believe that we call Falun Dafa a “science for life.”
]]>By Levi Browde
Pull quote:
“To me, the books explain the principles of life, science and the human condition more clearly and in-depth than anything else I have ever read”
To begin with, let me introduce myself. My name is Jonathan (Levi) Browde.
I am an American, born and raised in the southwestern United States. Currently, I live in Manhattan. I work in the computer software industry and have a fairly wide circle of friends. I am a New York Yankees fan, listen to anything from Bob Marley to Bach, and have a soft spot for deep pan pizza.
And last but not least, I am a practitioner of Falun Dafa.
What is Falun Dafa?
Falun Dafa is made up of five exercises that span from slow-moving standing postures and stretches to sitting in meditation. On the surface, yes, it may look similar to tai-chi or yoga, but it’s actually much different. The system of movements is very easy to learn and doesn't involve any breathing techniques, mental exercises, strenuous motions, or complex postures.
Most importantly, it makes me feel better than any other exercise I've ever tried.
How do the exercises make you feel?
I'm sure most Americans are familiar with the feeling you get after a really good workout. Your body feels good, your mind is clear, and you feel ready to take on the world.
It’s a similar feeling after you practice the Falun Dafa exercises: your body feels light, healthy, and strong. Your mind is clear, calm, and focused.
I was always an athlete in school and stayed on a regular workout schedule after graduation. My routine included stair-master exercises, free weights, nautilus machines, and so on. However, my physical health and mental clarity from this routine have never even come close to the level I have achieved from Falun Dafa. The exercises of Falun Dafa have made me far more fit than any workout regimen I have ever tried.
After all, Falun Dafa has very ancient roots and is based on principles that are quite profound. So perhaps it’s not very surprising that the practice has the power to cleanse and uplift one’s body to such an extent. I have met many other practitioners who have also experienced this effect.
Is Falun Dafa just a set of exercises, then?
I view the set of exercises as merely one half of Falun Dafa. The other half fosters mental wellbeing by helping people improve their character and outlook on life.
Mr. Li Hongzhi (pronounced Lee-Hong-Jer), the man who first brought Falun Dafa to the public, has written two books that accompany the five exercises. The first book, Zhuan Falun, lays out the principles of Falun Dafa and is the most complete work of the practice’s teachings. Falun Gong, the second book, is more of an introduction to the practice and a demonstration of the exercises.
To me, the books explain the principles of life, science, and the human condition more clearly and more in-depth than anything else I have ever laid eyes on. Additionally, these books have done something quite remarkable. They actually play a guiding role for me on a daily basis, which is something that no other book—be it spiritual, religious, philosophical, self-help, you name it—has ever been able to do before.
I have read many great books before, from Jack Kerouac to Shakespeare, from Stephen King to Lao-Tzu, and many of these books did open my eyes to new vistas and new perspectives. But did they really change who I was? Did they really give me a way to become a better human being from the inside out—to truly rise above the fears, anxieties, self-doubt, ego, and greed that too often came with the human experience? In my experience, not really.
Zhuan Falun, however, was different. Studying the principles outlined in the book has helped me overcome these weaknesses again and again, pushing my moral character to new heights. This was a book that could genuinely change someone for the better.
Practicing the exercises and reading the book—is that all?
Well, yes, that is primarily what we do as Falun Dafa practitioners. You can do these things in your own way and according to your own schedule.
Some practitioners do the exercises and read by themselves in the privacy of their own homes. Others do so in a group setting. Some do the exercises in the morning, others in the evening, and still others whenever they have time in their busy schedules.
I know practitioners who are busy pursuing Ph.D. degrees, while others are musicians and dancers that have demanding tour schedules. They come from all walks of life and strata of society, but all of them find a way to make Falun Dafa work for their lifestyles. So, no matter what kind of life you lead, how you practice is really up to you.
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