Taking a Look at Falun Gong

[Buddha]

I had heard of this group/cult thing when I was researching Buddhism and noticed somthing. In the religion (it is both exercise and a religion) they use a lot of terminology that makes them sound like a Buddhist sect. When I heard that the Chinese were actively against the group, I assumed that they were just treating Falun Gong like any other religion. Then I read about some of the beliefs of the group. The founder of the group, Li Hongzhi had some strange ideas about what a person could do. He proposed that a person could achieve immortality, which would go against the Buddhist concept of impermanance of existance. The man who started it did it apparently as part of normal Chinese Qigong and took the idea of moral cultivation from Buddhism. There is a difference between the achievement of Sangye sa (enlightenment) and immortality. This group seems like they are a persecuted group and the way they are being treated is a shame, no matter what their strange beliefs (which I have yet to read more about) may be. The thing that really bugs me (just to give a idea of what crawled up my ass to write this) is how many people go out and make up little religions with stuff pilfered from Buddhism. I guess that is why I don't like the New Age movement and why I feel that it's not a good thing. Here is a wikipedia article about the subject if anyone cares to read it. I only list it here because I don't feel I have enough knowledge on the subject to talk about it in real detail at this time.

[Superman]

The thing that really bugs me (just to give a idea of what crawled up my ass to write this) is how many people go out and make up little religions with stuff pilfered from Buddhism.

Religions can start at the drop of a hat, and this happens all the time. One could argue that Buddhism itself pilfered much of its own philosophies from Hinduism.

[Lusankya]

This group seems like they are a persecuted group and the way they are being treated is a shame, no matter what their strange beliefs (which I have yet to read more about) may be.

I think part of the reason that Falun Gong is being persecuted is the fact that Li Hongzhi is a nutcase who puts nasty things about the CCP on his webpage:

The Party-culture that the wicked CCP has infused into the world's people, and that has, most notably, poisoned the Chinese people, along with the lies it has fabricated about Falun Gong during the persecution, have led some who have blindly complied with the CCP--and in particular those who know full well that this is persecution but have sold out to the CCP on account of self-interest--to render humankind's immediate prospects for the future even more tragic.

(The that the above is from seems to be in response to the CCP's claim that Falun Gong is "political".)

And he even writes poetry about how evil the CCP is:

The Red Tide's Wane


(In Ci Lyric Verse)

The Red Tide fades as ordained,

its time now past

Signs of decline make ever so visible

the wicked Party's evil

Shameless are the acts, done for power

Greedy officials courting danger

Minds devoid of good thoughts

More high-handedness

breeds only more resentment

Who'd want to still persecute?

The day of reckoning draws near

Li Hongzhi
October 19, 2005

Now, while political persecution is just as indefensible as religious persecution, at least you can see where the CCP is coming from with their dislike of Falun Gong.

[sketerpot]

It doesn't end there. I have in my hand a book that I was handed by some Falun Gong guys on the street, called "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party". It's 300 pages of strongly-worded condemation of the CCP. Some of it's a decent read, although the religious conservative perspective is grating.

And that is why the Chinese Communist Party dislikes Falun Gong so much: they're a vehement dissident group.

[Kanastrous]

Did they originate as vicious dissidents, or have they reached that position after years of suppression by the Chinese authorities...?

By 2005 Falun Gong practitioners had been on the wrong end of some harsh Chinese government actions.

[Lusankya]

Did they originate as vicious dissidents, or have they reached that position after years of suppression by the Chinese authorities...?

By 2005 Falun Gong practitioners had been on the wrong end of some harsh Chinese government actions.

As far as I know, they pretty much started off that way. Li Hongzhi was always mad, and got worse after he left China.

[Lusankya]

Sorry for the post, but I just remembered the main reason I, in particular, dislike Falun Gong: interracial people are going to hell. (Or they can't go to heaven, anyway.)

Question: Teacher, would you tell us what the interracial children are all about?

Master: The issue of the interracial children I have just mentioned has told mankind a heavenly secret, but it is not that we would do anything. I said that I have done something even greater in the sense that I can also save a person of mixed blood, but I can only save him in this period of time. Though oriental people and Westerners all live on earth, man does not know that there is something separating the East and the West. It is well known that oriental people believe in the so-called "nine". They like the sound of it, which implies everlasting. "Eight" is pronounced as "fa", implying making a fortune. These kinds of things can indeed have a little bit of effect in the East, such as geomantic omen telling or landscape analysis, etc. But when applied in the West, they appear to be ineffective and do not work. They do not work with the white people. Then again, the so-called astrology or some phenomena believed by the white people do not work with the oriental people either. Some people think that they work. That is because you think they work. In fact, they don’t. Why is it then? It is because the white people's biosphere has its special physical matter formed in its own dimension while the oriental people's biosphere has the special matter made up with their life. Such things run through the makeup of one's life. Thus, the two sides are not the same. After races are mixed up, you will find one’s child born to be an infant of mixed blood. However, there is a partition in the middle of this child's life. If it is separated, he will be physically and intellectually incomplete or a person with an incomplete body. Modern science also knows that it is getting worse one generation after another. It would be like this. Of course, if such a person wants to practice cultivation, I can help, and I can take care of it. It cannot be done to a non-practitioner.

Question: Can you say a little more about the interracial children?

Master: I have already talked about such interracial children. I have only mentioned the phenomena in this Dharma-ending period. If you are an interracial child, it is, of course, neither your fault nor your parents' fault. Anyway, it is just such a chaotic situation brought about by mankind, in which such a phenomenon has appeared. The yellow people, the white people, and the black people have the corresponding races in heaven. Then, if one is not from his race or does not belong to his people, he will not take care of him. This is the truth, and it is not that I’m making up something here. What I am telling everyone are heavenly secrets. All interracial children were born in the Dharma-ending period. People are not to be blamed for it, because everyone is drifting in the tide, and nobody knows the truth. This is the way they have come through. If you want to practice cultivation, I can help. As for which paradise you will go to, we will need to look at your situation. I will assimilate more of whichever portion that is better preserved. Anyway, you should concentrate on your cultivation and should not concern yourself with these things. There is nothing to be afraid of now that you have attained the Fa. I did not mention such things when I was teaching the Fa in the past. However, such a matter will be told to man sooner or later.

[Darth Wong]

Falun Gong supporters are all morons. That's not an attempt to excuse the Chinese government's persecution, but think about it: what kind of fool allows himself to be subjected to such harsh punishment in order to practice some silly belief system that does absolutely nothing for him in any practical sense?

I suppose you could say the same thing for any religious believer who says things like "I would never renounce my Saviour even with a gun to my head", but those guys are morons too. If some Islamic nutcase put a gun to my head and told me to renounce atheism, I'd be praising Allah at the drop of a hat.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Yeah, fuck them. You don't mean it and you'll renounce it later and who cares? That tough guy shit doesn't matter in real life. No one is keeping score.