Yep, I do practice falun gong. I've been doing it for about 2 years now and it has changed my life.
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Yep, I do practice falun gong. I've been doing it for about 2 years now and it has changed my life.
macigfist,
Please expand on how it has changed your life in the past two years ... I (and I'm sure many others on the forum) would like to hear your account of what you've done to change yourself in such a profound way. I've been considering taking up something like this and welcome all information that you could provide us with!
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"You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They KNOW it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt."
- Robert M. Pirsig in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
i'm already quite healthy. i started out falun dafa because of the things in li hongzhi's books. his explanations of dimensions and other religions is unrivaled, and his practice of falun dafa seems superior to any other practice in every regard. not because of the movements, but because of the scope, and because the falun mechanism planted into practitioners is a direct way towards cultivating gong (shen).
it's very deep, though, and some people frankly aren't ready for it, or won't accept it. that's okay, though.
hey, magicfist, do you think we could talk a little via e-mail about falun dafa? i'm a beginner, and i'm sure you could help me a lot. i've read falun dafa, and large parts of his other writings, and am reading zhuan falun currently. i've also learned the first three forms, and practice them each several times a day. i also try as best i can to practice zhen-shan-ren, but i've been feeling stuck, because i have no way to judge my progress, or even know for sure that i have a falun without my tianmue open.
I brought up this old string to complement the new string on falun gong.
it seems to me that some people would classify this as mystical qigong. however, i don't believe that it ever claimed to be qigong. instead, it is a way of cultivation that includes exercises similar to those of qigong, but with a different purpose. when you have a falun, instead of a dan cluster, then the principles of what you are doing are totally different.
for instance, once you have a falun, practicing something that uses a dan could not work well. this is because the way they absorb and issue energy is different, and because a falun transforms the energy.
as i was saying, before i let myself get off the topic, is that it is a way to cultivation, similar to buddhism or daoism. a big difference, however, is that since people can cultivate quickly, and because the enlightenment is gradual, their third eye and supernormal powers develop gradually through practice. you can imagine how a man like li hongzhi, with his third eye and supernormal powers being how they are, could have gained so much knowledge. such an enlightened, or even somewhat enlightened person would seem odd or bizarre in a world like our's. his observations and knowledge wouldn't simply conform itself to what we know now. would the existance of aliens confuse and dumbfound an enlightened person? of course not. he would be able to see exactly what is happening. if he tries to tell the rest of us, this, however, will we believe him? we'll say "how do you know that?" when it should be quite clear to us how he does.
if you really read his books without attaching yourselves to anything else, it does make sense, what he says. the multi-dimensional aspects are clear and sensible, as are the rest of his teachings.
the big thing, though, is that we have to stop looking at it as mystical qigong. qi is a very small part of the practice, and is there only to open parts of the body, and to be transformed into gong (shen) by the falun.
p.s. if li hongzhi wanted to go against the chinese government with millions of practitioners in china, he wouldn't be able to. the reason is because they are non-violent. in fact, the main principles of the system are truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> his [Li Hongzhi's] explanations of dimensions and other religions is unrivaled, and his practice of falun dafa seems superior to any other practice in every regard. not because of the movements, but because of the scope, and because the falun mechanism planted into practitioners is a direct way towards cultivating gong (shen). [/quote]
Please go into more detail on what you mean to say here, PlasticSquirrel. What support do you have for this claim?
they're not my statements, but just opinions i have. if you want validations or clarification, i should probably redirect you to one of his books online. zhuan falun is the core book.
From what I have heard.. Falun Gong is a group that is using chi kung for what it was never meant for--politics. Very often you see them 'meditating' in public, drawing attention to themselves and trying to make a statement, which I think contrasts with the idea of chi kung or meditation.
If a person wants to do chi kung, why draw attention to it? What does it matter? Why meditate downtown with all your friends and a big bright ribbon around your shoulder? (i saw this in the paper the other day)
I personally think that a falun gong member will only receive minimal health benefits from the postures they do, but will find a huge difference in attitude as well as better results when studying under a true chi kung master.
I would rather learn closer to the source ..
Okay, when I first started practicing falun gong I was only interested in learning some form of chi gong. I do kung fu, and I thought it would help. When I first read the information in the falun gong books, I was very skeptical. I didn't really practice the chi gong for a while. One night I decided to give one last try before moving on. It was late at night and all of the lights in my house were off. I had my eyes closed and I did the movements. Then I saw two flashes of lighting. It scared the crap out of me and I opend my eyes and it was still dark. I closed my eyes again and resumed the movements. Then I saw a couple more flashes of lighting. I stopped and went to the one of the falung gong books. In the back there was a question and answer section. One of the questions dealt with the issue of opening the third eye. Li Hongzhi mentioned that one of the signs that the third eye is about to open is you might see flashes of lightning. This was the first experience that I ever had along these lines. Later, I could feel the falun rotating as I practiced the movements. At around this same time, I was taking a philosophy class at my college. The teacher talked quite a bit about scientific findings that were not mainstream. It really surprised me how much information agreed with falun gong. From that point on I have practiced falun gong. I said that it changed my life, and it really has. The quality of my life has improved. There were a lot of negative things that I was involved with (drug use etc.) that I have stopped doing as a result of practicing falun gong. I am more patient and kind with people, and instead of acting out of anger when there is a confrontation I try to follow the precept of truth, compassion, and forebearence. I'm not perfect and I have a long way to go, but I feel very fortunate to have found falun gong. Also I have met many other practitioners, and I have heard many stories of how people have changed there lives for the better after practicing falun gong. I know that there are people out there who have a lot of hostility towards falung gong for whatever reason. I suppose that you have to keep in mind that you really can't trust the chinese governments propaganda. Remember, the Chinese government has a history of running people over with tanks if they don't like their ideas. The practitioners in China aren't asking for special treatment, they simply want to be able to practice their spiritual beliefs freely. Over 260 people in China have been tortured to death because they wanted to practice falun gong. Thousands of others have been arrested and persecuted. Wheather you agree with falun gong or not, you have to admit that the Chinese government is in the wrong. Well, it's a long post so thanks for taking the time to read it with an open mind.
"If a person wants to do chi kung, why draw attention to it? What does it matter? Why meditate downtown with all your friends and a big bright ribbon around your shoulder?"
Here's a story: I'm a college kid who does falun gong. If I lived in China and someone found out that I did falun gong, I would immediatly be kicked out of college. I would be arrested. I would be tortured. If I did not sign a paper declaring that falun gong was "evil" then I could also be sent to prison.
Some people have gotten sentences up to 10 years for practicing falun gong, while others have been tortured to death. We gather outside and practice to let people know that what China is doing is wrong and they should stop. Plain and simple that's all it is.
magicfist-
there is an old saying- it says:
"society prepares the crime and the criminal commits it"
if you don't want to be found out, then don't practice what is considered criminal activity in public.
many people in the americas smoke marajuana, they do it in the privacy of their homes. Does this mean pot is good?
no it does not, it means that people will do what they like doing and try not to draw attention to themselves in the doing of it should it be a taboo thing to do in their given society.
If what you say is true, then it is YOU who must learn to work and live ithin the framework that you exist.
If you wish to influence change, then the last way that is done effectively is with an "in your face" attitude.
peace
Kung Lek
First, thank you for your honest answer.
Second, I do not doubt your personal experience (the flashes) as I also have experienced some very strange mental phenomena through taoist meditation. There is a lot to be experienced in the realm of the mind but one has to be prudent about the explanation given for these experiences. Simply because someone else describes what you felt doesn't necessarily means that everything else he will tell you is true. Maybe it is, maybe not. It is the same old trick all sects use. Luring people by teaching a few basic truths that everyone can test and see as true for themselves, then going on with their subjective interpretations... I'm not saying falun gong is right or wrong, nothing is really either. Just a warning about accepting a whole system of "truths". I wish I could explain better. It is late, I am tired. I will go sleep now.
ST
Surrounded by chaos, the true taoist laughs...
sorry about the title okay now i want every one who pratice falun gong to tell me why. and every one who doesnt but disagrees with them to also explain to me why do you think that i am not hear to accuse or critizie anyone i just want to know what info you both have to backup what you believe
the same reason buddhists practice buddhism and daoists practice daoism.
I practice Chi Kung for health and understanding of myself and how my body moves through the world I am in on a physical and mental and yes, "spiritual" level.
I follow no one but those who would assist me in gaining further understanding of myself by as yet unknown practices to myself.
To follow someone on a "promise" of returns is folly. To follow someone who can teach you something that will personally benefit you physically, mentally and "spiritually" is not so bad.
Complete devotion to anothers life will lead to sorrow for you exclude the opportunity to learn more about yourself. Not to say "don't", just saying observe carefully what you participate in and where you draw your lines of belief.
peace
Kung Lek
I didnt know if some people new this but one of the major reasons why the comunists threw him out and banned it is becauses he used to be a general for the military and he has quite a few military people loyal to him so it scared the communists and they threw him out. I personally dont like fg i read about 1 1/2 books i read china falun gong and a little bit of zhan falun gong its rather unorthudox (sorry for the spelling) but still theres no reason for any one to accuse them of anything unless they know from first hand expirience. :)
I was watching the news in Beijing last week. There was a report on a group of FG practicioners who kidnapped a non-believer and beat her to death, because she condemned Li. The story reported that they had Li's implicit approval; they were "excising devils".
I do not know whether the story is partially or completely true, but I have to wonder whether Li is really the "harmless nut" portrayed in US media.
i'm a little late with this thread, but here goes:
falun dafa practitioners are peaceful, like buddhists. they would never do anything like that. besides that, li hongzhi is in america, and isn't in enough contact with his chinese students to issue an order like that. even if he was, no one would do it, because they're peaceful, and don't exorcise demons in the first place.
it's not their place to do that, and they believe that they shouldn't interfere with those sort of things, although a high-level practitioner may ward away demons with his presence alone, and wouldn't resort to beating it out of someone (something that is ridiculously impossible, by the way).
falun dafa may be centered around one high-level teacher, but it is certainly not a network, an organization, or a cult. people can do as they wish, and no practitioner would resort to violence just because someone has a demon in them. li hongzhi says that people would be shocked if they saw how many people have demons, but he doesn't pay much attention to them.
i don't usually read rolling stone but their new issue with the "9-11-01" on the cover has a great article where a journalist from the NY Times interviews young would be terrorists/Bin Laden supporters. The one thing that struck me is that NOTHING HE SAID COULD CHANGE THEIR OPINION. This "faith" is usually reserved for supernatural/deified individuals (Jesus, allah) They would make a point, he would counter it and they would just say "no!!" That's insane. I consider Falun Gong to be a bunch of weirdos. People I would once have not considered a threat at all. Mao used comic books to get to people's conscoiusness, In the early 80's, we saw absurd Rambo knockoffs as right wing propaganda...
One word I saw in college often was "loaded". that is, the use of a word being used or meaning a lot of things, possibly. The right wing support of Paula Jones was "loaded" in that it was aimed to take down Clinton, not stop seual harrasment, or at least not firstly. So now someone is taking Tai Chi and putting an ideology on it? What if someone did that with Ju-Jitsu? Egads! :eek:
falun dafa is no more a cult than daoism. the people aren't kept track of. they come and go from the practice sites as they wish. if people just want to practice it for health, they can do that. instruction is free, as are the books and videos on the internet. nothing is kept in the shadows, and li hongzhi is only a teacher of falun dafa.
people that practice falun dafa don't care about politics, and are not violent radicals. they feel that they have no right to tell anyone how to live their lives, and if they kill, they will probably never succeed in cultivation. in falun dafa there is no excuse for killing, and no one will give you mercy in heaven. if they are nuts, then they are at least nuts who won't hurt anyone else or start any revolutions. those are the good type of nuts, i think.
it also has nothing to do with taiji. qigong has always been seperate from taiji, and the things that li hongzhi was taught are completely seperate from taiji, with no overlap.
as for the thing about chairman mao, you might do well to learn from history (china's paranoia, tianmen square), and rather about things not from the news or from chinese government propaganda and hearsay, but from the source.
really, people. the whole "falun gong is a cult and li hongzhi is evil" thing is totally without basis. it's all propaganda. look through his books online. i'm sure you will either come out with one of two opinions:
1. li hongzhi is nuts, and everyone who practices falun dafa is nuts
2. li hongzhi is brilliant, and falun dafa is the greatest thing ever
whichever one of these you think, it will at least be your own opinion, and not propaganda or lies.
You're probably right. In retrospect, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm serious ;)
the reason falun gong is able to gain a foothold in the usa is because people are of a new generation, who were not around for Rev Sung Myung Moon and his Unification Church, and there are alot of misplaced hippies,woodstock nation burnouts, reiki masters, and granola munching new agers with dream catchers on their rearview mirrors(is that so if they fall asleep while driving, they don't get nightmares?)looking for someone who has all the answers."there's a sucker born every minute"- PT Barnum
what about in china? there are a huge number of qigong masters. why didn't anyone question him earlier? surely they would have known the levels he was at without even talking to him. how did falun gong become far and away the most practiced qigong in china since the introduction of it in 1992? no one challenges his method or his levels of teaching. he was undisputed in china and his system was praised by the government because it was so powerful.
for the record, li hongzhi has 40 times the students that sun myung moon did.
I saw an instructor teaching chi kung(zhineng) style here. He seemed a good fellow, but listening to him more and more,people would tell me that he's really teaching falun gong.Very deceptive man.
:eek:
Here are two articles I found at www.qi-journal.com : "Is Qigong Political: A New Look at Falun Gong" by Ken Cohen, and "Falun Gong: A Way of Cultivation Practice" by Tracy Zhu. I have breifly started the first article myself and it looks to be of help to this topic. The site is: www.qi-journal.com/Qigong.asp?-token.Referrer=Qigong&-token.Category=Falun Gong
Here are the article descriptions:
"Is Qigong Political: A New Look at Falun Gong" Falun Gong has been in the international news and has become a political topic as China attempts to ban the practice and jail participants. Mr. Cohen not only describes the discipline to help us understand it better, but also gives his personal opinions on this very hot topic.
"Falun Gong: A Way of Cultivation Practice"
Did Mr. Cohen's article in the last issue (above) lead to misunderstanding about Falun? Here, a Falun Gong practitioner responds with an article that answers some of questions brought forward with their own personal experience
Has anyone been practicing the Falun qi gong system and have any comments about it. I personally have only been practicing the exercises and sitting postures for a bout a week and i feel the tremedous power increase. Any one else with good results?
Falun-
It is a health exercise like any other, i don't know why some people who does falun start thinking they are like "supermen." Maybe that why china is putting them in jail.
falun dafa is not like other qigong methods. it does not facilitate dan, or elixer, nor use the dan tian for anything other than the falun. it is spiritual qigong, similar to the rare methods found in chinese buddhism, daoism, and tibetan buddhism, and thus does not emphasize qi very much, although the exercises do work it to supplement the other aspects of falun dafa.
the people who practice falun dafa and are jailed for it are very peaceful and humble. they are jailed because there are too many of them for the government to keep under it's thumb. they are not just jailed, though. they are sent to labor camps and are tortured. over 200 have been beaten or tortured to death, and for a reason no better than what the government gives for doing the same thing to tibetans and christians in their country.
if they do seem to be "super men", it is because they can see through their celestial/heavenly eyes, through to other dimensions. this is not unique to falun dafa, but it is much rarer to find people of those levels in buddhism and daoism today. also, many practitioners are said to have supernormal powers of many kinds, but are emphasized not to use them.
i have read li hongzhi's two main books (china falun gong and zhuan falun), and found them to be very deep and fascinating. i, however, do not practice falun dafa. i know that at least one person on this forum practices it, and has gotten very positive results, but i've forgotten the name.
This group, although peaceful, is indeed as dangerous as any other cult.
I think the way the Chinese govt has handled them is attrocious, but if you consider what happened during the Taiping Rebellion, when a chrisitian cult almost took over the country, it easier to understand why they are so worried.
Atrocious-?
Maybe? The gov't claims falun has destroyed peoples lives and also their families. Do we know of the stories? or is the gov't just talking BS?
Supermen? haha...hardly. If you tell me falun can improve health, calm mind, foucs thinking...etc. ok, but once you tell me BS like i don't have to eat because i know falun....well i say your are a cult.
If what the gov't say is true then they should be dealt with like any other extremist cult.
What do you think of this site: http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/f02.html
How bout this on Zhong Gong: http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/z02.html
I know very little about Falun Gong - except that it is pretty controversial and the Chinese government has outlawed it.
An old Qigong master/healer once explained to me - in broken English - that it is dangerous.
Anyone have experience in this area?
Got any references?
Cheers!
Need to revive this forum. I don't practice this, however I did a research paper for my Poli sci class. I want to know what you all think persecuted group or evil cult?
"Need to revive this forum"
I hope you've seen our posting and hard work reviving this forum before you wrote that:mad: ;)
Falun Gong is kind of evil cult-y, but the chinese government has overreactet with a big O, in their persecution of them.
Yeah,hopefully our hard work has paid off. ;)
I´d go for a twisted cult.
"Worked out", I would'nt call it, with only one new thread.
btw, I did'nt find out any new subject, I've been busy all day. I promise I'll have something new tomorrow.
hey, I made it into someones sig, never have before.:)
Many KFO´s broke trough and to liberty that way. ;)
Your time has come.
lol I actually thought you chickened out for a moment,I/We´ll be waiting for your subject carelessly. :)
Pyramid scheme, disguised as a twisted cult. Tony Robbins for commies...
I like the falun gong solely becoz they p1ss off the communists so badly. :D
Is'nt the ideology behind Falun Gong a mish-mash of different poorly understood chinese philosophies/disciplines? and if it's that popular, it would be a little sad that the only way for the chinese to learn something of their own past history of philosophy and qigong, would be to join that sh!t.
how sad:(