New Statesman (UK): Why is Falun Gong banned? Falun Gong - ancient knowledge for modern people Persecution by the PRC authorities.

Over the past two years, there have been many events in China related to the Falun Gong sect. The authorities launched a massive attack on this para-religious organization, subjecting its members to severe repression. In this short article, the essence of the doctrine and practice of Falun Gong is outlined in the most general terms, and the reasons for the violent conflict between the authorities and this sect are analyzed.

The name of the sect consists of two parts: "falun" - according to Buddhist terminology, means the "wheel of the law" of the Buddha (dharmachakra). In Chinese, “fa” means Buddhist, and “lun” means disk, circle, wheel, rotation, which goes back to the Hindu concept of “chakra” (cosmic law), as well as to the yogic idea of ​​chakras as some kind of energy centers of the body. One of the Chinese names for the Buddha is Lunwang, i.e. "the wheel-turning king of the law"; the same word denotes chakravartins - mythical universal rulers, allegedly preparing the world for the coming of the Buddha. "Gong" - is directly related to the ancient Chinese psychotechnical tradition of the Taoist direction. The hieroglyph "gun" itself, among other things, means "achievement", "feat", "action", "effect", "skill", etc. In traditional Chinese philosophy, the word "qi" is understood as "pneuma", the universal substance of the universe, as a filler of the human body, associated with blood circulation, and as a manifestation of mental activity 1 . The word "qigong" refers to a variety of traditional systems, mostly of Taoist origin, for the purpose of internal cultivation through meditation and breathing exercises. An important role is played by the idea of ​​the unity of man and the cosmos - microcosm and macrocosm.

At present, a great variety of different qigong schools are spread in China. The communist authorities allowed their existence as a form of traditional breathing exercises. Moreover, "qigong" Along with traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture has always been advertised, including abroad, as one of the achievements of ancient Chinese culture. The mystical aspect has always been carefully separated, indicating that it is enough just to take the appropriate postures and follow the rhythm of breathing in order to achieve healing. Public performances by qigong masters lying down under reinforced concrete floors or lifting a truck were seen as a kind of Chinese circus.

And in 1992, a new "qigong" school appeared, calling itself "Falun Gong". Its founder was a certain Li Hongzhi, a native of the town of Gongzhuling, in Haide County, Jilin Province in Northeast China. He was born on July 7, 1952, but subsequently, in an effort to acquire additional authority among his followers, he changed the date of his birth so that it coincided with the lunar calendar of the Buddha's birthday. Li Hongzhi's biography is unremarkable: he studied in high school, worked at the army stable in the 1970s, then became a trumpeter for the forest police. From 1982 to 1991, he worked in the security service at a food company in Changchun. Since May 1992, he began to preach his teaching, claiming that for many years he secretly studied with Buddhist and Taoist teachers. Official Chinese propaganda, obviously relying on data from the secret services, claims that Li Hongzhi began to practice "qigong" only in 1988, mastered two styles of this gymnastics (jugong bagua gong and chan mi gong), and also combined them with elements of the Thai national dance, with which I met during a trip to Thailand. The practice of "Falun Gong" in addition to "spiritual exercises" includes gymnastics. These are the five complexes that bear the following names: the "Buddha Stretching Thousands of Arms" method, the Falun standing pile method, the two-pole piercing method, the Falun heavenly circle method, and the miracle-working enhancement method 2 .

In fact, the attempts of the Chinese authorities to present Li Hongzhi as an illiterate adventurer 3 , which he most likely is, do not at all clarify the essence of the matter. Indeed, by the time the government began to suppress the sect, it had 39 branches in various cities of China, 1,900 training centers and 28,000 "primary organizations" 4 . How did the Falun Gong sect become so popular that it has millions of followers? It is difficult to give a more precise figure: Li Hongzhi says about 100 million, the Chinese authorities - about 2-3 million.

Obviously, the reasons for the spread of "Falun Gong" in the PRC are rooted in the current state of Chinese society, or, to be more precise, the appearance of the sect was quite in line with, as they like to say in China, the spirit of the times. The reforms carried out by the Chinese Communist Party over the years have been designed to ensure sustained economic development and modernization while maintaining the CCP's monopoly of political power, particularly through strict ideological control. However, the results do not quite meet expectations. The disproportionate development of various regions of the country, corruption, the growth of unemployment in cities and hidden unemployment in rural areas, and many other factors have given rise to moods of discontent that are quite widespread and rooted in various social strata. The complete devaluation of the values ​​of the official ideology and the suppression of attempts to achieve minimal political reforms led to disillusionment in public life.

The search for the resolution of life conflicts began to gradually shift into the sphere of mystical searches, but not within the framework of officially recognized religions. Religious organizations existing in the PRC (regardless of religion) are strictly controlled by the authorities, do not have extensive nationwide structures, and do not enjoy the confidence of the majority of the population. And here comes the "teaching", outwardly based on the officially recognized health practice "qigong". This means that it can spread in various circles of society. Involvement of new followers can happen gradually. At first, those who want to "just improve their health" over time master the religious teachings, begin to systematically "study" the texts of "Falun Gong", worship the "Teacher", and so on. Gradually, information about "miraculous healings" spreads in society, and a wave of new members begins to arrive in the ranks of the sect with renewed vigor. This is how the centuries-old tradition of secret societies and sects comes to life, which from time to time arose in China and posed a significant threat to power. In modern conditions, the attractiveness of "Falun Gong" for workers, peasants, ordinary employees, pensioners turned out to be as follows:

1. the discrediting of the Communist Party caused the need to join some other paternalistic organization in order not to feel abandoned to the mercy of fate;
2. the outwardly health-improving and inwardly hidden religious character of the sect made it quite safe in the eyes of the people: it is not some kind of opposition political party;
3. in an atheistic society, a sect had understandable success, along with myths, using some scientific arguments;
4. living in desperate conditions, disillusioned with the reforms, millions of people have seized on the idea of ​​the coming collapse of the universe as a saving straw: there is no need to worry about the problems of everyday life, the main thing is to strive for a correct transition to a new world that will be recreated after the catastrophe.

Initially, Li registered with the Chinese Association for the Study of "Qigong", but was soon forced to leave its ranks, since the religious concept of "Falun Gong" did not fit into the framework of the official organization's materialistic ideology. It must be assumed that by 1998, when Li Hongzhi moved to New York, relations between the sect and the authorities had already become quite tense, and the inventor of Falun Gong had accumulated enough funds to continue to lead his followers from abroad without being in danger. repression.

Information about the theory and practice of "Falun Gong" was distributed in China in the form of books, laser discs, video and audio cassettes. While Li Hongzhi lived in China, he traveled a lot around the country, conducting paid trainings and giving lectures. The authorities announced that the total income. received by the leadership of the sect amounted to about 5.5 million US dollars. 5 The extent of the case can be judged by the fact that by the end of 1999, the police had confiscated about 10 million copies of Falun Gong books and other printed materials 6 .

The growth in the number of Falun Gong adherents over time began to worry the Chinese authorities, especially since many members of the Communist Party, as well as senior officials of state institutions, and the military began to practice. As Pennsylvania State University professor J. de Lisle notes, the mass entry of communists into a sect is a sign of an obvious decline in party discipline and a general destabilization of the domestic political situation. It became clear to the leadership of the CPC that an enemy appeared on the horizon, much more terrible than the "bourgeois liberals", since, unlike the latter, they enjoy, if not mass, then multimillion-dollar support of the population.

Critical articles began to appear in the press, in which Falun Gong was qualified as a "heretical sect" (sejiao) 8 and as a "cult."

In response, the sect resorted to silent demonstrations (in 1998 next to television stations that criticized them), then at Tianjin Normal University 9 on April 22, 1999, and finally in Beijing. Falun Gong practitioners made their most visible appearance on April 25, when about 10,000 people formed a human chain around the Zhongnanhai government compound. An organized force suddenly and unexpectedly appeared on the political arena, determined to oppose itself to the totalitarian regime. The sect has demonstrated an exceptionally high ability to effectively mobilize its members. This is what Li Hongzhi was striving for when he set up Falun Gong primary cells in the field. Modern means of communication: e-mail, facsimile messages and telephone made it possible to ensure the almost immediate execution of orders 10 .

The official reaction to such audacity was not long in coming. Literally a few days later, repressions were launched against the sect and its members throughout the country. The sectarians tried to resist: their peaceful demonstrations were held in almost 30 cities 11 . On July 22, 1999, the Falun Gong sect was outlawed for spreading falsehoods, cheating, and inciting riots. The next day, Li Hongzhi tried to draw the attention of international organizations and governments of other countries to the conflict, but only succeeded in putting himself on the wanted list on July 29. Hundreds, if not thousands of supporters of the sect ended up in the dock. Very many, according to the press, were subjected to extrajudicial measures of influence. At present, we do not yet have accurate information about the statistics of these repressions. Special orders were issued categorically forbidding members of the Communist Party and officials of state institutions from participating in the sect.

It should be kept in mind that at present the "Falun Gong" teaching has already spread in many countries of the world, primarily in the USA 12 . Li Hongzhi's eclectic system has found a grateful audience in societies that have been processed by "New Age" concepts. The commercial bait of a quick and "clean", "non-drug" recovery with the prospect of a significant life extension also worked. Therefore, it becomes clear with what ease it was possible to launch a campaign in defense of the sect in many countries. As for the position of the media, politicians and the "public", it was also implicitly predetermined. After all, the topic of human rights violations is the most important instrument of Washington's pressure on Beijing, so no one even began to understand the essence of the matter in detail. Falun Gong followers were declared to be innocent sufferers.

The mood of the West has worried the PRC, which would like to understand the reasons for its drastic actions. The importance the Chinese government attaches to its fight against Falun Gong can be seen from the fact that at a meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, in September 1999, Chinese President Jiang Zemin presented US President B. Clinton with a book in which The activities of the sect were described in unflattering tones, 13 which, presumably, did not impress the Washington administration.

On November 18 and 19, 1999, the US House of Representatives and Senate passed a resolution urging the PRC government to respect human rights and not put pressure on Falun Gong. Simultaneously with the participation of "Falun Gong" supporters in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc., a noisy campaign of protests unfolded, a great many reports of "illegal persecution" appeared in the media and on the Internet, but practically no one gave a more or less serious analysis of what this sect was in fact 14 .

It goes without saying that international support for Li Hongzhi and his supporters provoked angry protests from Beijing and did not change his policy. On December 26, four leaders of the sect (all members of the CCP!) were sentenced by a Beijing court to prison terms ranging from 7 to 18 (!) years. Trials and arrests continued in the future. Many leading figures in Falun Gong have been accused of stealing state secrets. This concept is very vague when it comes to a socialist society, where huge amounts of information are classified "just in case." For us, it is important that during the campaign the authorities emphasize the anti-state character of the sect.

It is interesting that, refuting the criticism of American legislators, Chinese diplomats argued that Falun Gong is not a religious organization (i.e., an acceptable phenomenon in the religious life of society), but a "cult" that does not obey the law, undermines public order, and violates religious freedom. , deceiving his followers, associated with criminal offenses and striving for political activity. Obviously, the PRC is resorting to such rhetoric to maintain a dialogue with the American audience, some of which will never agree with the persecution of any religion, but will treat the suppression of the "cult" with understanding. As a matter of fact, this rather ambiguous and differently understood term was borrowed by Beijing propagandists from the arsenal of American religious studies.

One of the main accusations leveled against Falun Gong is that practicing the exercises developed by Li Hongzhi leads to mental illness and death (Xinhua News Agency reported on July 30, 1999 that throughout China at that time 743 people lost their lives due to practicing Falun Gong, and by the end of the year this figure had risen to 1,400). At the same time, they refer to the American "Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Mental Disorders", which mentions "a psychotic reaction associated with qigong exercises." This is a rather strange propaganda device, since the American book, in turn, refers to the "Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders." However, here is an extended definition of the mentioned psychotic reaction (belonging to the category of specifically culturally determined) in question: "an acute, short-term attack, characterized by dissociative, paranoid or other psychotic and non-psychotic symptoms, resulting from the practice of ... "qigong "... The most susceptible individuals are those involved in excessive engagement in this practice" 15 . In this regard, the countless facts cited by the Chinese media that the followers of "Falun Gong": cut their stomachs with scissors, become explainable; jumped out of the window; self-burnt; drowned by jumping into a well; perceived their parents as demons and killed them, as well as their husbands, wives and children, etc.

Representatives of "Falun Gong" in China and abroad claim that they do not belong to a "cult" because they do not have a leader, they do not have any form of religious worship or ritual.

To assert that "Falun Gong" does not have a leader, one can only be in a state of deep, almost painful delusion, or wishing to deceive public opinion. After all, Li Hongzhi is the only source of information about the doctrine of the sect, and only through him is it possible to practice correctly. He himself speaks about this in a document called "Regulation on the Transmission of Law and Gong to Disciples of the Great Falun Law": my level of hierarchy" (as in the text. - Approx. auth.). In other words, Li Hongzhi appropriated to himself the unattainable status of a person who owns the secrets of the universe and is located on a "hierarchical level" of exceptional height. The book "Zhuan Falun" 16 also says: "I have achieved considerable success and had a positive impact on the whole (emphasis ours. - Auth.) society", "no one except me transmits gong to the highest levels of the hierarchy" (p. 5 ), "I can help everyone" (p. 8), "my Law Body is behind you, there is no danger for you" (p. 69), "if you listen to the sound recording constantly, you will understand more and more deeply the essence of the Law and extract more and more understanding from it, especially when you read my book" (p. 71). Therefore, adepts were recommended to constantly read and listen to the works of their teacher, whom he insisted that he was invisibly present next to. They were taught that without a mentor they were helpless: "You cannot explain this Law" (ibid.).

The "Master" constantly accompanies his followers invisibly. He is omnipresent. Here is an example from the book Zhuan Falun, which talks about the various trials that practitioners have to endure: "The form of such interference is from the devil, and sometimes from the Master who tests you, for which he resorts to such techniques as creating things from nothing "(p. 115).

Without completely rejecting traditional religions, Li Hongzhi allows the worship of Buddha images. However, he emphasizes that they must be consecrated by righteous people. Since they are not easy to find, and otherwise an unclean spirit, like a fox, a ferret, can get into the figurine (p. 101), the following method of consecration is suggested: “Take my book (since it contains my photograph) or simply my photograph and, holding the statue of Buddha in the hands folded in the tundra (as the text apparently means mudra. - Auth.) of a large lotus, ask the Teacher to consecrate the image, as you would ask me. Only half a minute is enough, and the issue will be resolved " (p. 103). The photograph of the "Teacher" itself exudes divine power, and his "spirit", presumably, is infused into the figure to become an object of worship!?

The sect requires strict adherence to internal rules. Violators are in danger. A document dated April 20, 1994, signed by Li Hongzhi titled "Requirements for Falun Great Law Counseling Points" states: "It is strictly forbidden for students of the Great Law to practice other kung fa... If something happens to them without listening to advice, then they themselves will be responsible for this "(hereinafter in this paragraph, as in the text posted on the Internet. - Auth.). It also speaks of obligatory resistance to any opposition to the sect: "Resolutely boycott acts that violate the content of the "great Law" 17. The "Demands" establishes the rules of daily practice for members of the sect: "one must study the Law and read books as daily obligatory disciplines." that it is necessary to “simultaneously improve both spirituality and body movements.” Thus, the assertion of the sect's lawyers that its members were simply engaged in physical education is refuted.

The fact that the followers of "Falun Gong" clearly attributed supernatural abilities to their leader can be judged by contradiction, according to the methods of official counter-propaganda. Xinhua News Agency reported that for 1982-1992. Li Hongzhi constantly purchased medicines for treatment. This means that among the sectarians there is a belief that Li is absolutely healthy and does not need the help of doctors. Here it is appropriate to note that the sect is blamed for the deaths of many people who refused medical care, relying on the methods of the "Teacher".

In order to finally decide whether "Falun Gong" is a religious sect, it is necessary to refer to the texts of its founder, Li Hongzhi. An analysis of his statements is the best way to answer the question posed.

Heidelberg University professor Barend ter Haar, who opened a special page on the Internet for an academic discussion of the problem of "Falun Gong", considers Li Hongzhi's teachings as "a combination of a religious lifestyle and meditative practice", he sees in the texts of the sect "clearly Buddhist inspiration" (admitting, however, that I "quickly" read the book "Zhuan Falun").

In Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi points out that the sources of his ideas are the "Buddha Law" and the "Dao system", i.e. seems to be in accordance with the Chinese syncretic tradition. In order not to be caught in dogmatic errors or poor knowledge of the canon, he refuses to qualify his system as religious. The idea of ​​"the most mysterious, supernatural science" comes to the fore. On the one hand, this gives the author complete freedom in the development of his "system". On the other hand, it justifiably appeals to the consciousness of the modern Chinese, who retains at least unconscious ties with the national religious tradition, convinced by atheistic propaganda in the "superiority of science over superstitions", disillusioned with the "ideas of Marx and all others" and in search of a new ideology.

It is understandable why a detailed analysis of Li Hongzhi's ideas has not yet been presented. Reading the notes of his lectures, which are an obscure eclectic decoction of information gleaned from various religious systems, as well as from popular science and pseudoscientific literature, is a thankless task. And yet, let's get started.

Cosmology. Outer space "was kind" and gave rise to the first life. The reason for this is not only that the cosmos acts as an impersonal creative or self-unfolding instance, but also contains substances that can give rise to life (a bow towards materialism, there will be many of them, because it is important for Li Hongzhi to convince his followers of the "scientific nature" of his teaching ). The main properties of the pantheistically deified cosmos, all matter, animate and inanimate, are three: "truth, kindness and patience" (zhen, shan, ren). Therefore, anyone striving to comprehend the truth must develop the same in himself.

Li Hongzhi claims that in some places on earth there are remnants of civilizations that existed a hundred million years ago. However, these civilizations disappeared at certain intervals, burying almost all people under their ruins. He states: "Once I checked in detail and found out that mankind has suffered 81 deaths" (p. 15).

In addition to the Earth, there are thousands of planets inhabited by intelligent beings that travel in space on UFOs. Their experience is an example of the fact that there are alternative paths of development to the earthly path, in which people at their current level of development do not understand everything. "UFO aliens fly at an unimaginable speed, they can increase and decrease. They followed a completely different line of development. They have a different approach to science" (p. 148).

In the universe, there are numerous hierarchies of enlightened beings related to Li Hongzhi, who observe his activities and have the ability to create peace, apparently acting as demiurges acting on behalf of the cosmic law. There are also saints of a lower level - "terrestrial Buddhas and terrestrial Taoists" who live secretly in the mountains and forests. "There are several thousand of them all over the world, most of them live in our country (China. - Author)." They use "rather primitive methods" of cultivation, lower than "Falun Gong" (p. 103). Thus, we can find a proper place for the members of the sect: they are in the middle between the celestials and the saints who have not yet left the earthly vale.

Symbolism of the sect. The emblem of Falun Gong is a yellow circle with a red circle in the middle. In the red circle is the yellow hieroglyph "wan" (Buddhist swastika, the sign of the heart of Buddha), around the circle on the yellow field there are four more such hieroglyphs, as well as four symbols of the "great limit" - "taiji" 18 . Li Hongzhi claims that this emblem is a model of the universe, which is in constant rotation.

Ontology. "Everything is predetermined by fate", "all the deeds of ordinary people ... are predetermined by fate." The cause of human torment is the evil deeds committed in past lives and forming karma (ate). To avoid suffering, i.e. not to get sick, get rid of disasters and "become sinless" the path of self-improvement, "return to the source of life" (Taoist idea) and "achievement of real awakening" (Buddhism) are offered. To do this, you need to practice "Falun Gong", which will allow you to first simply heal the body, and then "the human body will already be completely replaced by a substance of high energy" (p. 8). At the same time, it is noted that "from the point of view of a high level of hierarchy, a person lives not in order to be a person" in the modern sense of the word (corrupted by "social relations"), but to merge with the Universe (p. 56). At the level of ordinary people, there are those who "should be finally destroyed", but they were given "one more chance" for salvation, through the practice of "Falun Gong" (ibid.). In addition to spiritual perfection, Li Hongzhi, quite in the Taoist spirit, also promises to achieve the immortality of the body: "qualitative changes will occur, which is why ... a person will forever remain young" (p. 169).

Li Hongzhi acknowledges the existence of evil spirits. "Devils everywhere" (p. 61), he writes, acknowledging the possibility of people being possessed by "impure animal spirits such as the fox, ferret, and snake" (p. 60). He also states that practicing "Falun Gong" can attract the devil (p. 112) and gives numerous examples of how this happens, apparently using both personal observations and the experience of his followers. It is difficult to escape from the devil: "without the protection of my body of the Law, you yourself will not be able to do this" (ibid.).

The doctrine of salvation. Achieving "zhen, shan, ren", according to Li Hongzhi, is the main goal of Taoists, Buddhists, and Falun Gong members. The shortest way to cultivate is "qigong" in the Falun Gong version. This technique is attributed to a prehistoric origin, and it is emphasized that scientific research in a certain way fixed the specific manifestations of the "organism of qigong masters", i.e. it is emphasized that "qigong" is not an "idealistic view" but a "materialistic reality" (p. 16).

"Gong" is considered as "cultivation energy", which should be increased by receiving from the hands of the "Master". For this, certain conditions are necessary, in particular, the cultivation of xinxing, or the immutable thinking principle in a person. "Xinxing" includes "de", or materialized morality. (In passing, we note that Li Hongzhi avoids the question of dividing the world into spirit and matter: "matter and spirit are identical", "matter ... is a natural spirit" - p. 18). "De" is "white matter", and karma is "black". The task is to deplete karma and build up "de". To do this, it is proposed to humbly endure all kinds of misfortune, since the karma of the victim automatically flows onto the offender, which in turn improves its "de" at the expense of the enemy. Therefore, it is even proposed to engage in a kind of "vampirism", running into conflicts for the sake of collecting "de" 19 . Improvement of "de" allows the "Teacher" to increase the "gun" in the student, and he gradually reaches the "level of Buddha". Li Hongzhi claimed that in his lectures he "personally inserted" Falun into the "lower abdomen" of his listeners (p. 24). "Falun", being "the universe in miniature", "has all the superpowers inherent in the universe, can automatically move, rotate" (ibid.). With such a Falun, the sect members hoped to achieve supernatural results. It seems that the idea of ​​an energy ring located in the lower part of the human body was borrowed by Li Hongzhi from the tantric tradition. She teaches that at the base of the spinal column there is a certain latent energy - kundalini, which, being awakened by yogic exercises, rises along the "central energy channel" and ultimately leads to the transformation of the body into incorruptible 20 .

All Falun Gong followers inevitably improve their health and morale, notes Li Hongzhi. As an illustration, the experience with the introduction of sectarian teachings "in socialist production" is given: "Since the workers and employees began to learn Falun Dafa (the great law of Falun. - Author), they began to come to work early and leave late. They work with diligence and prudence, willingly perform any task that they are entrusted with. No one is chasing personal gain. All this has led to a change in the spiritual image of the plant. The economic efficiency of the plant has also improved" (p. 82).

Li Hongzhi promised his students to make them a receptacle for the deified cosmos and, in the future, to become masters of the universe. Here the influence of the Buddhist tradition is clear, which understands the universe as alien to any teleology and is the result of the karmic actions of living beings in all their rebirths. Only, according to the teachings of Li Hongzhi, successfully self-cultivating people can become an elite group that determines the further transformation of the world. He attributes to himself the ability to teach the adherents of the sect to rise above the laws of karma, from the point of view of Buddhism, immutable. You just need to surrender to the power that "Master" puts in you: "Falun has a mental ability. It knows what to do" (p. 26). The deified leader of the sect subordinates the adherents to his will through zombification. Constantly reading his books and listening to his voice, they indulged in psycho-physical exercises, believing that Li Hongzhi laid in them a "microchip of eternity." They expected eternal youth, omnipotence and heavenly pleasures, but became slaves.

The ultimate goal of self-improvement and achievement of the "highest hierarchy", above the "degree of Zhulai" (Tathagata), i.e. Buddha, appears rather banal in the performance of Li Hongzhi: "Life without disease, without suffering, when there is everything you want - this is how the life of celestials looks like" (p. 39). A cultivator "has only to stretch out his hand, and he will have everything he wants," and this will happen in his own paradise - "Paradise" (p. 91).

Eschatological tension is felt in Li Hongzhi's sermon: "For the last time, in the last period of decline and destruction of dharma (as in the text. - Auth.), we preach the orthodox Law" (p. 69). Who did not have time, he was late! All the more so because soon we need to prepare for the worst: "a big explosion took place in outer space a long time ago," and its consequences will soon reach the earth. “The property of the Universe and the matter in it will explode completely,” and one must have time to create in oneself a new spiritual property corresponding to the new universe, the one that the “great enlightened ones” will create after the catastrophe (p. 96).

Representatives of higher hierarchies sometimes come into human society, but not without fear. The fact is that their memory is being erased, and they can easily "get bogged down in the swamp of fame and self-interest." A good way to overcome this impasse is the "method called madness" (sic!). A person with good data for self-improvement should be "forced to be in a state of insanity, lock up a certain part of his brain" for two or three years. When he is properly tormented, his "de" will improve, his "tun" will rise. "After that, consciousness is returned to the person" (p. 111-112). In other words, if someone simply goes crazy doing Falun Gong, there is nothing to worry about, he is depleting his karma.

Miracles. Here we come to a very important topic: miracles. Li Hongzhi repeatedly emphasized that his disciples can do all sorts of incredible things ("white magic" - p. 22; "many living beings are produced in your body" - p. 23), certainly thereby tempting people 21 . What is the use of warnings to refrain from performing miracles? The public just needs them.

The authorities also did not stand aside, they were frightened. Talking about the discovery of the mystical all-seeing "third eye" (tianmu) among his students. Li Hongzhi spoke about the need to restrain one's ability to "all-seeing": otherwise "state secrets could not be preserved" (p. 30). After the beginning of the repressions, the authorities, for greater seriousness, accused the sect of stealing state secrets.

The followers of Li Hongzhi supposedly can see the future, have answers to all questions, and can cure diseases. But doing the latter is categorically forbidden: "The worldly community is exactly the kind that is in a state of birth, old age, illness and death, existing by predestination ... If you cure someone, it means you violate this principle" (p. 145) . Adepts are told that in time they will be able to work miracles, but they should restrain themselves, taking an example from the "Teacher": they can do everything, but they don't...

Relations with other religions. About Ch'an Buddhism: "Actually, they distorted the meaning of Shakyamuni's statement" (p. 9). Li Hongzhi treats Buddhism in general rather dismissively, noting that there is a lot of primitive in the teachings of the Buddha, since he preached "for people who originated from the newly formed primitive society and were very primitive" (p. 11). The leader of "Falun Gong" himself declares that he is at such a high level of "hierarchy" (tsenci) that he can continue the revelation of the "Buddha Law" to a much greater extent than is done in Buddhism.

So, we are faced with a doctrine that claims to be more truthful and a higher level of initiation into the secrets of the universe than the religious traditions recognized in China. The author of this teaching acts as an indisputable authority, "Teacher", who has wisdom inaccessible to other people and is associated with the "celestials". He acts as a transmitter of heavenly secrets to perishing people, he is their savior. All followers of the sect are invited to perform psychophysical exercises to change the body, turning it into a different "energy substance", which, in particular, is not subject to aging. The need to adopt the Falun Gong teachings as soon as possible is motivated by the impending universal catastrophe, in which only zealous adherents of the sect can be saved.

Supporters of "Falun Gong" believe that salvation from death is possible with the help of special psychophysical exercises. However, there is a major prerequisite: "Master" places in the body of adepts a certain mystical self-moving intelligent omniscient entity "Falun". Falun cultivation is the main religious ritual of the sect, although it may look like simple gymnastics. This is deception.

In addition, Li Hongzhi claims that even with the help of his photograph, images of the Buddha can be consecrated. Hinting with the date of his birth on the connection with the Tathagata, he pursues a very specific goal: "to move into the statue" and become an object of worship.

"Falun Gong" has a clear organizational structure and established communication channels using the most modern means of communication. Thanks to this, the sect has the ability to quickly and effectively mobilize its members for mass actions.

Members of the sect are required to strictly adhere to orthodoxy, deviations from the "teachings" of Li Hongzhi are not allowed. The practice of "Falun Gong" involves constant reference to the works of the founder of the sect: books, audio and video recordings, which allowed the organizers of the cult to put their business on a commercial basis and have significant income.

Appealing to the consciousness of the modern Chinese, religiously and ideologically disoriented, the Falun Gong sect, hiding behind the slogan of "science", in fact, fraudulently recruited a huge number of people into its ranks. Li Hongzhi devoted their despair to his vanity and self-interest.

At the same time, we do not yet have sufficient grounds to assert that Falun Gong is a totalitarian sect. Perhaps not enough time has passed for the structure of the organization to fully crystallize. This can now be judged by the nature of the development of the "Falun Gong" international community, to which Li Hongzhi and his entourage are currently making efforts.

Let us emphasize once again: regardless of what exactly the essence of the Falun Gong teaching is, the problem concerning the relations of the Chinese state with the sect is primarily of a political nature. This was openly stated by many Chinese figures, including the honorary chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic League of China (one of the non-communist parties in the PRC) Qian Weichang. Wang Zhaogo, head of the United Front Affairs Department of the CPC Central Committee, was even more blunt in his assessment: the Falun Gong incident can only be compared to the June 4, 1989 riots. (Referring to the student demonstration in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.) Xinhua News Agency described the Falun Gong sect as "a political force that opposes the Chinese Communist Party and the central government. It preaches idealism, theism and feudal prejudice. It has created strongholds points (zhan) throughout the country at various levels, and even infiltrated some important party and government institutions." In November 1999, the head of the Communist Party and state, Jiang Zemin, condemned Falun Gong, calling the sect a "cult."

The PRC government hastened to create a legal framework for the fight against Falun Gong. On October 30, 1999, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted a resolution to ban the activities of "heretical cult organizations." The document, which does not contain a mention of "Falun Gong", does not define what such "cults" are, it only states that they operate "under the guise of religion, "qigong" or in other illegal forms." The most dangerous consequence of the activities of "cults", according to the text, "violation of the law", "organization of mass gatherings in order to undermine public order", "murder, rape, fraud", etc. was involved in cult organizations fraudulently. Considering in this regard that, according to Hong Kong observers, 35,000 members of the sect have already been persecuted, one can imagine how extensive the ranks of Falun Gong are.

An explanation soon followed from the Higher People's Court and the Chief People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China as to what "cults" were: "illegal groups using religion, qigong, or other means as cover, deifying their leaders, attracting new members to their ranks, and carrying out control over them, deceive society by inventing and propagating superstitions and threatening society." These authorities also explained that "Falun Gong" falls under Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code, which refers to "superstitious sects and secret societies" 22 . One cannot resist drawing analogies between what is happening now and the events of the distant past, when all sorts of secret societies and millenarian religious sects organized anti-government movements and uprisings, often endangering the existence of dynasties.

Participation in the sect of the Communists, apparently, caused the greatest concern of the authorities. An example of someone addicted to Falun Gong is the case of General Yu Changxin, a high-ranking researcher from an institute affiliated with the Air Force. In January 2000, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for participating in a sect.

It must be said that the repressions did not completely break the readiness of the sectarians to fight against the authorities. This is quite consistent with the teachings of Li Hongzhi, who argued that the accumulation of merit for a good rebirth is possible only through suffering ("You need to experience some hardship, endure some share of grief and suffering, it is unacceptable that you do not experience anything"23) . The end of October 1999 was the time of fairly massive demonstrations by sectarians who arrived in Beijing in an organized manner from different parts of the country and from abroad. Thus, they testified their disagreement with the decision of the Standing Committee of the NPC to prohibit sects. It was in order to suffer for the idea that Falun Gong adherents staged a New Year's demonstration in Tiananmen Square on January 1, 2000. A month later, an attempt was made to cover the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate with a portrait of Li Hongzhi 24 . In both cases, a significant part of the protesters were holders of passports of foreign states, and could not be subjected to the same harsh repressions as citizens of the PRC. Another attempt at a demonstration was made on the occasion of the lunar new year on 4 February 25 .

The Internet plays a significant role in the confrontation between the Chinese authorities and the sect. The global computer network is being used by both sides to spread their views on the issue of banning Falun Gong in the PRC. Obviously, the PRC government was unprepared for the fact that the followers of Li Hongzhi made e-mail the most convenient means of interaction between Falun Gong branches in various provinces and were able to conduct protest activities very effectively.

Interestingly, other qigong groups have recently been persecuted, such as the Zhonggong school, which has about 20 million followers and about 100 branches, 1,000 training centers and 180,000 teachers in different parts of China. The Qilin group of companies, based in Tianjin and engaged in tourism and health services, was closed. This group, according to the press, financed Zhungong. Zhonggong's confiscated funds amounted to approximately US$10 million. 26 The founder of Zhonggong, Zhang Hongbao, went on the run.

The fact that another group was subjected to repression by the authorities indicates that the PRC government is seriously concerned about a completely new problem for it - the onset of mysticism, well organized and deeply rooted in national tradition.

Priest Peter Ivanov, Dr. Sciences

Notes

1. Kobzev A.I., Yurkevich A.G. Qi. // Chinese philosophy. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Ed. M.L. Titarenko. M.: Thought, 1994, p. 431.
2. See: Li Hongzhi. Falun Dafa. M.: Publishing House of the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples, 1999, ss. 320-331.
3. The texts of Li Hongzhi, most of which are records of his public speeches, shocked readers with their low literary quality. In response to accusations of illiteracy. Li Hongzhi resorted to a specific trick: he announced that the modern language was not able to adequately convey his teachings. In Russian, it looks like this: "... with modern normative words it is by no means possible to express the guiding direction of Dafa at the higher different degrees of the hierarchy and the manifestation of the Fa (Law) at each degree, it is even impossible to set in motion the evolution and increase of bent'i (Own body) disciples and gongs, it is impossible to set in motion such a significant change" (Li Hongzhi. Zhuan Falun. The Great Law of the Buddha Falun. M .: Publishing house of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, 1998, p. 189). The text gives the impression of complete nonsense also because, like all other works of Li Hongzhi translated into Russian, whether published in Russia or posted on the Internet, it is the result of the works of the Chinese, who do not speak Russian well enough.
4. Xinhua News Agency, 1999, July 22.
5. Xinhua News Agency, 1999, Dec. 26.
6. "Toronto Globe and Mail", 2000, Jan. 31.
7. de Lisle J. China. Who's Afraid of Falun Gong? "Asia Times", 1999, Aug. 10.
8. The mention of heresy causes bewilderment in the European reader, since heresy is a deviation from the true dogma. So, it must be assumed that the CCP has the true knowledge that "Falun Gong" distorts? In fact, the Chinese term "sejiao" would be more correct to translate as "false teaching". It is also important to keep in mind that in the history of China such exercises were considered by the authorities as a threat to the stability of the state.
9. He Zuoxiu, a professor at this university, spoke in a youth magazine criticizing the dissemination of Falun Gong among teenagers.
10. The organization of the sect in Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan province, looked like this: at the top - the central office, three branches, 56 first and second level training centers, 890 study groups. At all five levels of the city organization, 358 leading workers of the sect worked.
11. According to the authorities at the end of 1999, there were 78 demonstrations, in which 300 people or more took part. Xinhua News Agency, 1999, Dec. 26.
12. According to the Internet, Falun Gong organizations exist in the United States (at least 45 states), Canada, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, England, Russia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zeeland, etc.
13. Associated Press, 1999, Sep. 12. Ji Shi's book is called "Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong". Beijing, Xinxing Publishing House, 1999.
14. An exception is a member of the J.K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University, now teaching in Beijing, prof. K.-A. Schlevogt. He reproached the world press for being biased, since the media deliberately turn a blind eye to the fact that Falun Gong manipulates its members, educates them in unquestioning obedience and suppresses their will, deifies its leader and pursues the goal of enriching a narrow group of people, as well as its practice causes direct harm to human health. "Decisive action by the authorities is extremely important," he writes, "because cults deprive people of the ability to defend themselves. Falun Gong followers have fallen into a trap without realizing it. The true criminals are those who lead the sect" The true criminals are those who leads the sect" ("China Daily", 1999, Aug. 18.). K.-A. Schlevogt noted that many other areas of "qigong" have the opportunity to continue to develop in China. not quite right.
15. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). 4th edition. Wash., American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 847.
16. Where this book is cited, only the page number is given in brackets in the text.
17. Li Hongzhi himself uses the term "heresy" extensively, referring to various new religions and sects penetrating China ("Zhuan Falun", p. 52).
18. The symbolism of "Falun Gong" is rooted in the Buddhist-Taoist tradition. However, Li Hongzhi stipulates that he has nothing to do with the Nazis: "Some say: this sign is similar to the Nazis (as in the text. - Auth.). I will tell you that this sign in itself does not represent any concept about classes" (p. 93).
19. One of the followers of the sect, who lives in Moscow, spoke at a conference on Falun Gong. It was carried out with the help of "Swedish comrades" in September 1999 in St. Petersburg. He shared with his colleagues a method for improving "te": for this, it is best to be in a traffic jam during rush hour. There is malice all around, and you are sitting proudly building up the "matter of morality" (data from the Russian site "Falun Gong" on the Internet; which, apparently, is also maintained by the Chinese. The counter of visitors to the site reads: "you are such and such a person who came from - for predestination").
20. Paribok A. Kundalini. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism // Dictionary. M.: Publishing house of the Republic, 1996, p. 249-250.
21. "If you reveal everything to people, then, seeing it, that all this is true, then everyone will begin to cultivate, including those who have no forgiveness" (p. 22).
22. "China Daily", 1999, Nov. 1.
23. Zhuan Falun, p. 48.
24. "South China Morning Post", 2000 Jan. thirty.
25. "Chicago Tribune", 2000, Feb. II.
26. "Australian Financial Review", 2000, Feb. 1; "South China Morning Post", 2000, Feb. 2.

The swastika is a common Buddhist symbol for Falun Gu'n (Traditional Chinese 法輪功, Simplified 法轮功, pinyin Fǎlún Gōng, lit. meaning Wheel of Law practice) or Falun Dafa' (Traditional Chinese 法輪大法, Simplified 法轮大法 , pinyin Fǎlún dàfǎ, lit. means "Great Law of the Wheel of the Law") - a Chinese organization, the adherents of which call it the "school of self-cultivation of the soul and life", which became widely known in the early 1990s in China. Falun Gong is said to teach meditation techniques through exercises to improve physical health as well as moral and spiritual purity. Falun Gong is also referred to as Falun Dafa ("Great Falun Law"). The school has millions of followers in almost all countries.

Falun Gong followers claim that they strive to follow truth, kindness, and forbearance in their daily lives.

Critics of the Falun Gong teachings believe that hatred is preached to any individual or organization that criticizes the favorite - Li Hongzhi, as well as the rejection of medical care and taking pharmaceuticals, which allegedly led to countless cases of death and spiritual insanity of followers. In critical literature, the organization is called a sect.

Founder of Falun Gong

The founder of Falun Gong is Li Hongzhi. In 1992, he introduced Falun Gong at the Beijing Oriental Health Expo. In 1993, Falun Gong also participated in this exhibition, where he was awarded the top three awards. At the same time, this method of practice in China began to be called Golden Falun Gong - for its effectiveness in terms of healing the body. Soon the way of practicing Falun Gong became popular throughout China. Li Hongzhi graduated from the main textbook of the teaching system, Zhuan Falun, in 1994. In addition to describing the principles of Falun Gong, the book touched upon the topics of development, the meaning of place and time, and the mysteries of the universe.

Falun Gong Practitioners Demonstrate the Exercises Falun Gong practitioners do exercises designed to promote health outdoors. The principles of this method of practice are fully described in Zhuan Falun and other books, as well as on video and audio cassettes, as well as websites.

Suppression of Falun Gong Activities in the PRC

In 1999, the Chinese government took away Falun Gong's legal status and legal protection and banned its publication. In 1996, Li left China to give Falun Gong lectures in Europe, Asia, and Australia. In 1998 he moved to New York. Falun Gong practitioners in China have been persecuted by the police at the behest of "above". On April 25, 1999, approximately 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners held an all-day peaceful demonstration outside the Central Appeals Office.

The government responded on July 22, 1999 with a total ban on Falun Gong in China. It also tried to issue an international arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi on charges of developing a "sinister cult" that spreads prejudice in order to deceive people. As a matter of political judgment, the warrant was not taken into account by the United States government and the international police organization Interpol. Falun Gong followers around the world, on their own initiative, explain the truth about the Chinese Communist Party's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong practitioners themselves claim that this teaching is not a religion or a cult, and has nothing to do with politics. They say that followers should not leave material possessions, work, or family life. The goal of the practice is to gradually get rid of selfish desires.

Falun Gong

The Falun Gong (Wheel of Law) movement was founded by retired military officer Li Hongzhi in 1992. It combines elements of Buddhism, Taoism and the classical healing practice of qigong.

The movement gained immense popularity. According to some data, up to 70 million people participated in it in China. Chinese immigrants to the United States were also fascinated by the new doctrine. It is believed that their number is about 8 million.

The Chinese authorities were frightened by such an unusual popularity of the religious movement and began to fight with him. Falun Gong leaders have taken thousands of their own followers to Tiananmen Square in Beijing demanding official recognition of the movement. But this demonstration of a significant number of adherents backfired. The movement was banned in July 1999.

Video: Falun Dafa Falun Gong Qigong Exercises

Since then, its activists have occasionally held public protests, but their participants have been arrested. In late 2000, several alleged Falun Gong practitioners set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. But the management of the organization considered this the result of a police provocation and refused to admit that the dead belonged to the movement.

Favorites of "Falun Gong" have repeatedly emphasized that it is not a religion, but a spiritual practice. Li Hongzhi, for example, states that members of the movement can belong to any religion. In this, he is similar to neo-Hindu gurus who say that the practice of Indian yoga is compatible not only with Hinduism, but also with other religions. But the syncretic teaching that frames the practice of Falun Gong contains Buddhist and Taoist postulates.

The movement has no fixed membership and no clergy. Its participants emphasize that they are not so much an organization as a group of like-minded people united on a volunteer basis. This frightened the Chinese authorities, who do not like amateur performances, especially in the sphere of religion.

Lishai Lemish looks at history and reveals the reasons why the CCP is carrying out the campaign to persecute Falun Gong

"If Falun Gong is good, then why is the Chinese government so afraid of it?" After nine years of persecution, this issue still stands. Here I will try to answer it.

In the 80s. every day at dawn, about 200 million Chinese people filled the parks in China, where they performed exercises consisting of fluid movements, known as a form of qigong. In 1992, Master Li Hongzhi began to teach Falun Gong as a common qigong practice. However, Master Li did not focus on healing the body and developing supernatural abilities, but on self-improvement to achieve spiritual perfection.

Falun Gong gained immense popularity almost instantly. Master Li traveled all over China, passed on the practice, talked about its principles. Information about Falun Gong was passed on by word of mouth, and soon [Falun Gong practitioners] could be found in thousands of parks. The Chinese consulate in Paris invited Master Li to teach the practice at his premises, and official figures showed that the government has saved millions in medical costs thanks to Falun Gong.

Spreading rapidly until July 1999, Falun Gong suddenly became the number one social danger in the opinion of the communist government. Practitioners are sent to "re-education labor camps" where they are starved, beaten, and tortured with electric batons. By 2008, more than 3,000 practitioners had died as a result of state persecution. There is very strong evidence that even more practitioners have unwittingly become donors of kidneys, livers and hearts. What is the actual number of these victims, we do not know.

Why is this brutal persecution taking place?

Weak Explanations

Faced with international criticism and domestic sympathy for Falun Gong, China's ruling Communist Party began to look for a rationale for its campaign. She stated that Falun Gong is a threat to society, that it is a superstition-based, well-organized, dangerous meditative group abroad. State media told horror stories of mutilations and suicides, but outsiders were not allowed to investigate these cases. When people somehow manage to carefully investigate such cases, they find that it has happened to people who do not exist at all, and the crimes are committed by people who have nothing to do with Falun Gong. Human rights organization human rights watch calls such official statements simply "fake".

Some scholars believe that party leaders feared Falun Gong because it reminded them of past religious uprisings. However, judging only by general impressions, it is impossible to see how bloody these groups were: for example, the often mentioned uprising in Taiping, which resulted in the death of 20 million people. Falun Gong has always been strictly non-violent and has no insurgency plans.

One of the latest clarifications to denigrate Falun Gong is that on April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in the political heart of Beijing, which frightened the party leaders and caused the persecution to begin.

However, in reality, the peaceful demonstration was the result of a three-year escalation in the suppression of [Falun Gong] before. In fact, it was a direct response to the arrests and beatings of practitioners in nearby Tianjin and the media's smear campaign against Falun Gong.

Opinion of one leader

This was the main incident, but it was caused by other reasons. That April day, Premier Zhu Rongji received the representatives of this group 1 of practitioners and listened to their complaints. The detainees were released. Practitioners involved in this incident told me that they were very encouraged by the fact that negotiations between the government and the people had begun.

However, that same evening, Chairman Jiang Zemin sharply rejected Zhu's conciliatory position. He branded Falun Gong as a threat to the Party and said that it would be humiliating for the Party if Falun Gong was not immediately eradicated. Indeed, many experts attribute this campaign to Jiang's obsession with Falun Gong as much as to other factors.

The result of popularity

It seems that Jiang and other anti-compromise party members (some of whom still hold high positions and support this campaign) were afraid of Falun Gong's great popularity in various social strata of society. In the northern cities, the workers did the exercises together in the yard of the factories before going to the machines. Professors and students meditated on the lawns of Tsinghua University. The wives of party leaders and senior party cadres formed their own small group in central Beijing.

This fear of Falun Gong's popularity explains why just weeks after Falun Gong's flagship book, Zhuan Falun, became a bestseller in 1996, its publication was banned. And also why, after the government's announcement that the number of Falun Gong practitioners (70 million people) exceeded the number of party members was released, special agents began to interfere with practitioners' exercise.

Rogue party-state explanation

For decades, the party has been persecuting various groups: intellectuals, people employed in the arts, clergy, conservatives, reformists, and for this it organizes various political movements. Some are persecuted because they are out of party control or have their own ideology. Falun Gong, with its spiritual teachings, sense of community, and community independence, falls into this category.

The persecution is targeted at other groups when the party leadership begins to intrigue to level power for themselves. It appears that Falun Gong has also fallen victim to this situation, as the persecution can be used as an excuse to strengthen the security apparatus. This gave the party an opportunity to add fuel to its [state] machine, from the purges of the Cultural Revolution to Internet surveillance.

As torture survivor Zhao Ming told me at a meeting in Dublin, "The Party's persecution machine was already in place—Jiang just pushed a button."

Ringworm Lemish

I've been working this week from Tabei, where our office is in the Taipei 101 skyscraper. And every day on my way to work, I meet a group of these grandparents sitting in front of the entrance, dressed in yellow shirts. These are the followers of the Falun Gong movement, which many probably encountered, but did not really understand who they were and what they wanted.

Let's find out! The movement is famous for telling around the world how it is being persecuted by the Chinese authorities. For example, here is their action in Moscow a few years ago:

1. (I didn't see it myself, but they told me.)

2. These gatherings are quite massive, as we have in New York, at Union Square:

Falun Gong is considered by many to be a sect, a movement based on the religious philosophies of China, with a dash of traditional Chinese gymnastics. It is also sometimes called Falun Dafa. If you are not in the subject, you can easily think that there are at least two such movements, or even a lot, but this is not so. Both names refer to the same philosophy/practice.

3. The foundations of Falun Gong lie in the traditional Chinese gymnastics, Qigong. Qigong practices originally came from the Chinese religions of Buddhism and Taoism. But in the middle of the 20th century, the communist authorities deprived it of all spiritual components, and turned it into a purely physical exercise with elements of meditation. The practice was introduced to the masses in order to improve the health of the population. To this day, in Chinese cities, in any park, you can see groups of grandmothers doing this exercise in the morning.

Qigong circles were formed all over China, and masters appeared in different regions, teaching their version of this practice. In an atheistic society, these people played the role of spiritual authorities. In the 1970s and 1980s, about two thousand varieties of Qigong were taught in the country!

In 1985, the authorities created a special organization to coordinate and control the various branches of Qigong.

4. Falun Gong began as just one of the varieties of Qigong. Its founder, Li Hongzhi, was born in the city of Gongzhuling, in 1951 or 1952 (versions differ). In the late 1980s, he decided to create his own practice, which would return the spiritual components to qigong. Li claims to have studied the traditional philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism a lot with the masters of those schools, and Falun Gong is a natural extension of them.

Over the years, Li became a figure of great reverence for Falun Gong followers. For example, on the website of the movement, where I downloaded this photo, they ask me to print it only on a high-quality printer, or even better, turn to professionals.

The emblem of the Falun Gong movement is a mixture of yin-yang and swastika. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with fascism. After all .

The name itself translates roughly to "working hard with the teaching wheel", or "the great law of the teaching wheel" in the case of Falun Da Fa. The spiritual teachings of the sect are based on three main values: Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. However, Li himself does not consider his offspring a religion, believing that Falun Gong is just a way of spiritual and physical self-improvement.

5. The physical component consists of five exercises. Four are done while standing and the fifth is in sitting meditation. These exercises are the most obvious component of the sect for an outside observer.

6. Grandfathers in front of Taipei 101 repeat these exercises from time to time.

At the same time, Lee himself considers them secondary. Spiritual cultivation is much more important in Falun Gong.

The authorities initially supported Falun Gong, and Li even received several awards from the Qigong Association as an honored practitioner.

By the mid-1990s, huge crowds were gathering in the squares of Chinese cities to do the prescribed exercises together.

But towards the end of the millennium, the communist authorities began to worry that the doctrine was becoming too popular. They made several attempts to force Li Hongzhi to submit Falun Gong to some government agency, but he refused.

8. The Communists banned the media from giving positive coverage of Falun Gong, and launched numerous investigations into the movement's organizers. In 1999, a huge demonstration of supporters of the sect gathered in Beijing - thousands of people took to the square, demanding that the government stop the oppression. But the effect was just the opposite.

In July 1999, the authorities banned the movement, calling it a dangerous and heretical religious sect. At that time, there were about 70 million Falun Gong followers in the country.

9. The organization became underground in China. Chinese people suspected of supporting Falun Gong began to be arrested. Many were imprisoned by local authorities without being formally charged.

10. Interestingly, the ban did not extend to Hong Kong, which. Having committed to maintaining freedom of speech in Hong Kong, the Chinese authorities are forced to promote anti-Falun Gong without banning it entirely:

On the poster, we see Li Hongzhi with fangs attached to him. Apparently they couldn't think of anything better.

11. By that time, Li himself had already moved to live in the United States, from where he was able to reorient Falun Gong from a simple sect into a sect, the main feature of which is the persecution that it is subjected to by the Chinese authorities. As you know, everyone loves to cheer for the weak, and then there is also the fashionable Chinese philosophy of gymnastics. Falun Gong began to attract more and more people outside of China.

12. And Taiwan was no exception. The local Chinese population does not like their brothers on the mainland much anyway. Falun Gong has given them a good reason to poke the Chinese human rights authorities. Now Taiwanese pensioners are on duty every day in front of the country's main skyscraper.

13. Some of the posters show peaceful people of European appearance, but I have not seen such people. Usually only the Chinese are on duty.

14. In other posters, they complain that Falun Gong adherents are being tortured and killed in Chinese prisons. As far as I understand, these are mainly "excesses on the ground", and not a policy lowered from above in relation to the followers of the sect. Though that certainly doesn't make it any easier.

Some posters show the effects of prison torture. I will not torture you with them, it's all easy to find on the net.

15. Sometimes in Taipei there are very massive actions of Falun Gong supporters. The crowds fill

One of the reasons why Falun Gong was banned in China was its enormous popularity in China at the end of the 20th century. So it would be better if I first talk about the reasons for its popularity.

To briefly tell the history of Falun Gong, we can say that until the 1990s, Falun Gong was a very small school - the master taught only one student per generation.

But seeing that after the Cultural Revolution, numerous qigong schools turned into gymnastics and do not fulfill the main task of providing people with opportunities for spiritual improvement, Master Li Hongzhi decided to open his school for everyone.

If we express the principle of cultivation of Falun Gong in the words of the Russian language, then these will be the words: Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Those. a Falun Gong practitioner should try to always tell the truth, act truthfully, keep a calm mind, show patience and kindness.

In 1992, the master registered Falun Gong as an ordinary qigong school and began to give lectures throughout the country, which were later published as a book, Zhuan Falun. By 1999, about 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong throughout China. The exact number was not known, because according to the rules of the school, there were no lists of people who practiced Falun Gong. The school also had neither centralized leadership nor tuition fees.

The process of entering new students looked like this. A person came to a practice site - usually it was some kind of city park, learned the Falun Gong exercises there and began to practice.

But it was the sheer numbers and rapid rise in popularity that was one of the reasons why the Chinese Communist Party decided to ban Falun Gong. And then they began to repress the people involved in it.

Illegal Ban on Falun Gong

Since the existence of Falun Gong did not violate any laws of the PRC, the CCP could not legally ban it, and all the suppression was carried out along the party line, in the form of "telephone law". This is when a higher party official simply orders his subordinate to commit illegal acts without leaving written orders.

So, despite the fact that the persecution of Falun Gong in China has been going on since 1999, there is not a single known written order from the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to ban Falun Gong. And according to all existing Chinese laws - official There is no ban on Falun Gong in China. And the reasons for the unofficial ban will be discussed below.

Why is Falun Gong banned in China?

Perhaps the first reason for the ban on Falun Gong in China is its popularity in the country. After all, the number of people involved in it exceeded the number of members of the Chinese Communist Party.

And from this came the second reason - in China, the Communist Party controls all movements, whether they be religions or qigong schools. Control is carried out simply - a party official is appointed to the leadership of the school, and the entire organization automatically becomes under the control of the party.

But in the case of Falun Gong, which had no centralized leadership, this method did not work. And here we come to the third reason - in Falun Gong there are no tuition fees, no monetary contributions, and, accordingly, there is nothing and no one to pay taxes on. But the authorities controlling all qigong schools did not want to put up with such a “loss”.

It is known that while Falun Gong was not yet "banned" but was already gaining popularity, they approached Master Li with a proposal to introduce tuition fees. But he refused, saying that Falun Gong was for self-cultivation, and you can't take money for it.

But, of course, all these were only indirect reasons, the real reason, and many independent Chinese experts agree on this, was the political adventure of the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin.

By 1999, Jiang did not have sufficient political authority in the party he led. All his predecessors were famous for something, but against their background he seemed to be ordinary mediocrity.

So he decided to follow the example of Mao Zedong, who, having unleashed repressions of dissidents on an unprecedented scale, called the Great Cultural Revolution, achieved absolute power in the country. It was only necessary to find a group of dissidents, which could be labeled "enemies of the people." And why he chose Falun Gong, see the previous three reasons.

Information war

To justify the existence of persecution in modern China, Jiang launched an information war against Falun Gong. The party-controlled media blew out a sea of ​​negativity, blaming Falun Gong for everything they could think of. This disinformed work continues to this day. It appears to be a front for the illegal trade in the organs of Falun Gong practitioners killed in prison.

Why do some people think that Falun Gong is banned in Russia?

As a result of this propaganda campaign against Falun Gong, many websites and even media outlets on the RuNet reprinted Chinese government media materials. And what is interesting is that in China, the persecution of Falun Gong has been going on secretly for many years, without media coverage of this topic. In fact, on the Chinese Internet, one word "Falun Gong" or "Falun Dafa" is enough to block an article or post on a social network.

And Russian websites using Chinese Communist Party propaganda against Falun Gong seem to be more than ten years behind the times. Apparently because of them, some people find this article on demand: why is Falun Gong banned in Russia. Especially for them I will say - Falun Gong is not banned in Russia. The main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun, has been banned from distribution because of the image of the Buddhist swastika. You can read more about this in the articles:

And we will return to the topic of China.

Illegal trade in organs of disenfranchised people

Since the start of the widespread persecution of Falun Gong, Chinese prisons and labor camps have been filled with hundreds of thousands of new political prisoners with no rights. The party leadership demanded from the prison authorities their ideological re-education. Which was carried out with the help of torture.

Soon after such re-education, the first dead appeared in prisons, whose deaths were documented as suicides. The bodies were treated in the same way as with executed criminals - their organs were donated to transplant clinics.

Soon, not “accidental” victims began to die in prisons, but those on whose organs the buyer was located. This is how Chinese clinics provided a suitable donor organ within 1-2 weeks. (In the US, for comparison, a donor heart has to wait 5-7 years).

When they began to earn a lot of money in prisons, moreover, on the deaths of people who were a problem for the country's leadership, higher authorities willingly turned a blind eye to this.

Falun Gong Rehabilitation

Most likely, the current leadership of China would be happy to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, but then it will need to be rehabilitated, which means that all officials involved in serious crimes, such as torture, murder and organ trafficking, will have to be punished. Which will put the Communist Party and the state in a bad light.

In addition, the party functionaries involved in these crimes still occupy high places in the government and hinder the rehabilitation of Falun Gong in every possible way. But, judging by the news from China, officials who carried out the repression are gradually being put on trial on charges of corruption.

Perhaps Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to quietly deal with the criminals in his party, and then just as quietly rehabilitate Falun Gong. But until this happens, the repression continues and people continue to die.