Why Falun Gong Dafa is Banned in China

     Usually it is in another post, where I thought it might be useful to cross reference with the topic at hand. I put a group of practitioners on the radio for a week in Taos,back in the late 90;s. They spent aweek there teaching the exercises. After reading the comments under this video, it is easy to see how effective the propaganda wheel works. Unfortunately it can be more powerful thn the prayer wheel!!

     First off, let me remind everyone that there were hundreds of qiqong methods in china. Falun Dafa was one of those methods,,,that is all! I do coiling qiqong, rocking qiqong, walking qiqong,,,etc. I'm not trying to lessen it's importance, just trying to support what she said. There are many ways to cultivate energy internally...I think that the unique thing about this practice is that the intention isto cultivate 24/7, whereas most sets have "closings". Mentally , a closing suggests to oneself that the practice is over, the work is done, and we won't build,or cultivate again until we practice again. You will notice in at least one of the linked videos of the exercises, the swastika is used to portray our center, around the navel area. This is the pulse of our entity,,,so we are merely cultivating the strength of our,,,,,our torus if you will. This is also the pulse of the universe, so we are merely aligning with it. It's not mystical, and it's definitely not brain surgery if you are looking to reset yourself! Just do it! Once you are comfortable enough to do the exercises on your own, it can easily be built into a powerful meditation practice, and your body will benefit as well as your mind. ( note that in the videos, they don't hold the positions for long) . In the standing exercise(no 2), each of the four positions should be held for longer periods of time as you progress....Try 8 minutes each! ha! It is a great burn, and the conflict between your mind and body will become evident! Have fun with it! I have always preferred the Taoist methods to the buddhists, as the Taoists have always included the body in their cultivation methods. In the old transcripts,Da Mo came from India, saw how unhealthy the Buddhist monks were, as they were trying to free themselves from  the body, so their intentions seemed to manifest as bad health. Da mo stood in a cave, staring at the wall for 10 years, and when he emerged, developed qiqong to help the monks. The old transcripts later describe qiqong as the basis of all chinese medicine and martial arts, so it is obvious that they embraced it.

     So why did they outlaw this form of qiqong? I didn't hear her mention this, but I am having trouble streaming video right now. There are other videos out there, and many of them make reference to the timing of it all. The man who brought it to the public was given several national awards over the first several years, even a personal award from the president. (RememberJim Jones was also turned on this way by the American government)There were hundreds of millions of practitioners in just the first few years, due to the internet. It spread so fast, and he had become so popular, the president became fearful,,,,as all governments should be! haha! It was the perfect example of the power of the internet! Look and you will find many pictures of tens of thousands of people practicing together in giant parks all over China. So, why would the government turn on the practice like that? FEAR! They saw this man come from nowhere and become the most popular figure in the country in a couple of years! The president was furious that many didn't even know his name, so the wheel started turning. And their propaganda spreads all over the world, they even marched a parade of fake practitioners through chinatown in New york city, laughing about all the people who had just died in a huge earthquake in china, saying  it was karma for china's bad deeds. The video was spread around china, and chinese communities around the world, and obviously people were outraged...They just don't give up!

   The thing I never agreed with(when I learned from his disciples) was that they told me I should give up all other practices(including taiji). This is nonsense! IMO it would be better to  include the intention of cultivating 24/7 with any other practices, than to give them up! But, I do separate the practice from other exercises( I don't do the sets in the middle of my morning practice) . Watch the 5 exercises as a "set"..The first one opens the channels with the flexing. The second builds powerful chi flow,,,it should be very strong inside,and calm on the outside. The 3rd and fourth exercises build protection from outside forces, emf, disease, others emotions, etc.. You are taking all that  energy you built up in the standing set and spreading it all over yourself , protecting vital places on your body. The last exercise, the sitting exercises are sitting meditation, and once you extend the arms out to the sides, that position and the rest of the sequence should be held for several minutes each. Remember, you are puffing up your aura, bringing your immune system where it should be, outside the surface of your body. Haha! I  was taking a reiki seminar once,,,and the morning of the second day, i did a bunch of qiqong before the classes. The lady who "measured" people's auras spotted me coming in, and called to me, asking me how I got "it" to puff up like that!

Just  like any practice,,,it's all what you put into it

  One more thing! I have only met two people on mainland china who have admitted to knowing about Falun Dafa. One of them was scared to use the word qiqong. The other is a taiji practitioner and we had a nice discussion about it. She had seen the protests in Hong Kong and Macau. People set up booths there every weekend, at the ferry landings, with life sized photos of the tortured practitioners. They give away free literature and software to use on the internet to get through the censors. Some of the folks who fled the country back in the 90's invented a lot of this type of software, and distribute it as widely as possible. Allegedly, many people who visited the sites were tracked, but don't know if that is true or not. Usually, if I try to get to a blocked site,,,it just keeps resetting my search until I give up,,,so technically, I never visit the site. I have to use stealth vpn now, as they tracked and blocked my regular vpn. It works better on my phone as I can log on from different places all the time.

  The thing I like best about qiqong,,,,any style,,,is that it relates so well to all that new science we keep hearing about! That really clicks with me personally, it helps me connect some of the dots. Just like the old professor in "what the bleep" said,,,"It"s just like pumping iron,,we just need to keep working out".

  L,,,,,T

Here goes.

In the 90's I met a lady at workplace who was a practitioner of Falun Dafa.  I don't know how she found out about it but she had had a wonderful experience with it.  Her health was deteriorating and over time she eventually couldn't work any more.  Her doctor told her she would continue to get worse and she might have a year to live.  This is when she found out about the practice and put it into place. Her health began to improve, her pain became less and less and she soon was able to return to work.  When I met her she seemed to be in pretty good health and today she seems to be in excellent health.  I took some weekly lessons in Falun Dafa from her for a time but didn't stick with it. Along with the exercise she invited us to study the work and teachings of the Master(the one you see in the video), but I didn't do that.

In 2002 my wife and I went to China to teach English. We taught at 3 different universities over the next 6 years. In the first year there we did inquire of some Chinese (students and friends) about Falun Dafa, and as Tscout mentioned, this was met with fear and warnings not to have anything to do it. As Tscout mentioned, the very fact that they had such a large number of participants coupled with a story we heard about as particular incident, was enough to cause the govt. to try to shut them down,

The story, as near as I can understand, was that a leader of the Falun Dafa was taken into custody for something(maybe it was the master himself) and very soon(maybe the next day) the Party people were shocked when more than 10000 practitioners showed up to ask for his release. The Party panicked that one person had such a loyal following. In other words they were caught with their pants down and were frightened of the power this person seemed to have. Hence the need to shut them down fast and hard.

There are many horror stories about what happened to many, many followers and as just a hint at what was(is?) occurred/ing I have heard that people needing a heart transplant or, other organ, can get it much quicker in China than other places. They seem to be more readily available there.

I did not notice fear of talking about qiqong and tai chi was practiced by large numbers of Chinese.

The govt. there has a fear of any person who tries to form large groups around anything ideological. Sometimes religious missionaries have tried to form a church or group outside of the govt. approved structure and if they are caught, they are given about 24 hours to leave the country. We often had students visit us to practice English or discuss other things, even on spiritual matters but we never let the groups get larger than 5 and usually fewer.

I hope you don't get a negative view of China from this because my wife and I both think our time in China was the best experience we have had. The people are sweet, gentle and kind and we loved our students very much, some of whom we still have a relationship with. (I don't think that is good english)

Hope this is of interest.

   the guy in  the exercise vids is the master. He fled China long ago. The protest was in tianamen square, but was just a huge group of practitioners standing in meditation. There were many high ranking practitioners,,,professors,doctors, even some politicians who were given 10 yrs. and more in work camps. Later, some people set themselves on fire in the square,,,after the persecution had intensified. It was pretty ugly. Some cops were just standing next to them watching them burn, others were clubbed while they were burning....So,it was easy to depict them as crazy in the news.

   Oh, and I didn't say that people were afraid to talk about taiji, but,,as some know just enough to know that it is a formof qiqong, they will just clam up if you mention it....Now,,it has been long enough for a new generation to grow up not knowing anything about  it unless they go abroad and happen to make contact with a chinese community, or a group of practitioners. That is just what they wanted...

    What amazes me is that something that was so popular and widespread(at least 300 million practitioners) was able to be shut down so effectively...And that it is nothing more than meditation,,,,,,,Son of Dust,,,hope you are doing well brother,,,nice to see you here,,,,I am in shenzhen now. Weird to be in a cityin china that is only 30 years old..........L.......T