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Falun Gong also hews closely enough to religious schools of both East and West to make it attractive on any continent. Besides the yoga-like movements, the Celestial Eye and an "energy yardstick" that grows atop followers' heads, Li speaks of humanity's fall from grace and briefly mentions "the last days of Last Havoc," elements that have their analog in traditional Western religions. Li's teachings also offer a simple morality, with Zhen Shan Ren (truth, compassion and forbearance) as "the sole criterion used to judge a good person from a bad one."

Though Falun Gong, like most Eastern teachings, includes no mention of an omnipotent god, Li's messianic requirement that his followers put their faith in him and only in him harks back to Christianity's early days. Also reminiscent of Western religion are Li's accounts of his own miracles -- though much of "Zhuan Falun" is devoted to why such things cannot be displayed to the faithful, and why the "supernatural powers" that can be achieved through high-level cultivation are never to be used.

"Zhuan Falun" opens with an endearing disclaimer as to its style, which remains plain and largely comprehensible throughout, if a bit idiosyncratic. (The lectures were composed originally in Chinese.) "Zhuan Falun is not flowery in its language and even does not conform to modern grammar," Li writes. "If I try to use modern grammar to polish this book of the Great Law, there would arise a serious problem: the language and grammatical structure of the writing might be standard and beautiful, but they will not be able to impart deeper and higher implications, because it is completely beyond the capability of contemporary standard vocabulary to express the Great Law."

China Falun Gong Zhuan Falun (Revolving The Law Wheel)

"Zhuan Falun" is also filled with quirky -- if not always decipherable, even in context -- turns of phrase ("the gigantic dye vat of ordinary human society," for instance). And some of the concepts with which Li illustrates Falun Gong may sound at bit outlandish to Western readers (well, and to Eastern ones, too, probably). One of the first steps required of the faithful is that their bodies be "purified" by Li so they may receive Falun, a Buddhist swastika of energy transformation that rotates constantly within a disciple's abdomen. We are told of Yinghai, or "subtle babies," that appear all over the bodies of high-level Falun Gong practitioners; of ancient cities on ocean floors; of a 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactor in Gabon, Africa; and of the fact that civilization has been left "in complete destruction" 81 times in its history -- a fact Li discovered only after "a meticulous check which I once did."

But despite Li's own bold claims, he is not one to tolerate any rival theories that might come down the pike. "Do not read those heterodox qigong books," he warns. "Do not even open them at all." And despite the role the Internet has played in spreading Falun Gong, he isn't likely to argue that information wants to be free. "Zhuan Falun" is filled with demur explanations of why acolytes may not be told of this or that aspect of what lies behind his teachings.

Concerned with the sect's growing popularity, the Chinese government recently revoked Li's status as a qigong master, inspiring thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to show up in Beijing toting copies of "Zhuan Falun" in protest. The protests led to the largest government crackdown in China since Tiananmen Square, and resulted in the detention of more than 10,000 people across the country.

Why are the leaders of China -- some of whom, at the lower levels of government, are also Falun Gong practitioners -- so concerned? Other quasi-religious movements in China have nearly toppled governments in the past. But a closer reading of "Zhuan Falun" and "China Falun Gong" reveals that there is little in Li's teaching that seems likely to encourage his followers to threaten established political leadership. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

"Anything that seriously disturbs human society is absolutely not allowed to exist," Li says. Beijing, in fact, might be better served by embracing the young faith than by excoriating Li in its official press, where daily denunciations describe him as "virtually a Living King of Hell" and accuse him of harboring "wicked political ambitions;" they even dug up a former teacher of Li's to discuss his lackluster early academic career: "We had never found that he was a person of extraordinary caliber."

Judging by "Zhuan Falun," Li is no political firebrand. By combining a noble complacency with a practice that seeks to maintain the societal status quo, Falun Gong is all set to serve up a following that is almost Orwellian in its malleability. It is hard to know, of course, whether this is what Master Li had in mind. The Chinese government alternately accuses him of being a CIA agent and of having only his personal gain at heart. More likely, it is an overweening desire for adulation that drives him. And it's just possible that he has, in his studies, discovered the secret of eternal youth and supernatural powers. In any case, he has managed to design an apparently benign religious system that appeals to millions of people around the world. And if that's the case, more power to him.
salon.com | Sept. 8, 1999

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