Falun Gong Devotees Bring Peaceful Practice, Message

Sunday News
Sunday News Staff Writer – Marty Crisp
October 14, 2001
Lancaster, PA

Our military is bombing Afghanistan. Our citizens are threatened with bio-terrorism. Soldiers with rifles guard our airports.

In other words, we’re pretty busy with our own problems right now.

So, why should we care about a Chinese discipline called "Falun Gong," which is getting people over in China sent to labor camps, mental hospitals, and prisons, where they are frequently tortured?

Why would a group of Philadelphia-based devotees drive all the way to Lancaster’s Penn Square Saturday to lay down their small red mats and quietly practice Falun Gong in front of passing pedestrians, engine-revving Harlys, honking horns, and even a recruiting table for the Pennsylvania National Guard, set up right across Queen Street?

"America is the leader in the fight against terrorism," said Doctor Shiyu Zhou, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "And all nations committed to fighting terrorism need to take a stand when something like this is happening. The persecution of Falun Gong (practitioners) in China is nothing less than state terrorism. And that inevitably leads to international terrorism."

Falun Gong, which roughly translates to "The Great Way," is all about health and inner peace. Spokeswoman Terri Morse, of Media, said American Falun Gong activists are fielding petitions they hope will grab the attention of President Bush.

Morse, said their sources insist Bush will leave for a visit to China this Friday, Oct. 19^th, hopefully with a sheaf of pro-Falun Gong petitions in hand. Those papers now include several hundred signatures from Lancaster Contians, collected Saturday during five hours of passing out literature and demonstrating Falun Gong exercises in Penn Square.

To Western eyes, it’s a practice (like classical yoga, it’s also in the Buddhist school of thought) that looks a bit like Tai-Chi, (which is in the Taoist School). There’s stretching, cross-legged meditation, and several stroking (without touching) exercises. "You do these exercises while maintaining a peaceful, natural mind," Zhou explained.

Although Zhou stressed Falun Gong is not a religion, its precepts of "truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance," don’t sit well with China’s Communist regime.

The Philadelphia group, with about 250 core devotees (there are no dues, no members, and no official organization) holds weekly study groups, monthly meetings at two Philly-area bookstores, and does outreach once a month.

Last month they went to Wilkes-Barre. Next month it’s Reading.

"President Bush said recently that this country ‘represents’ freedom, said Morse, a licensed pilot who works part-time at a Delaware County flight school.

"Like the people in Afghanistan suffering under the Taliban, the Chinese people are suffering under a totalitarian regime. We’re looking for a way to stop it."

Wei Huang practices "self-cultivation" by using an ancient Chinese discipline called "Falun Gong" in Penn Square, Saturday.