Ames Daily Tribune: Followers find peace in Falun Gong

Julia Jiang was searching for the meaning of life when she found Falun Gong in the mid-1990s. And the Iowa State University researcher believes she found it. What she doesn't believe, however, is that true believers would immolate themselves like the Jan. 23 attempt by seven people in Tiananmen Square in China. "Frankly, I don't think they were Falun Gong practitioners," said Jiang, a 28-year-old Ames resident. "Because our teaching is against suicide or killing of any kind." What Falun Gong is about, she said, is "truthfulness, compassion and forbearance." She's not alone. Xiaojing Pan, a 27-year-old ISU graduate student, also practices Falun Gong. She said true followers would never harm themselves. "I felt very sad to hear about the self-immolation incident," she said. "They must have met terrible troubles they cannot afford and then decided to give up their lives. But I do not think they are practitioners. Because Falun Gong is against killing others and suicide, Master Li told us suicide is also a sin. Currently, many ... from Internet question the whole thing." Master Li Hongzhi started Falun Gong in 1992. It literally means "the Practice of the Wheel of Dharma" and involves five sets of exercises done to Chinese music. Jiang and Pan, both China natives, are among a handful of people who practice Falun Gong at ISU. Jiang said about seven people attend their meetings each Sunday. Those meetings, she added, aren't worship services. There are no ceremonies, worship rosters, membership forms. "People just come and go freely," Jiang said. Group meetings consist of meditation and exercise similar to Tai Chi. "Like what I previously said, Falun Gong offers us the law of cosmos, telling us how to be a good person, why to be a good person, how to improve our mind level," Pan said. Jiang believes Falun Gong improved her health. Before, she said, she frequently had fevers, colds and the flu. "After I started practicing I became a strong woman physically," Jiang said. She started practicing in 1996. Pan said she, too, first looked into Falun Gong as a way to improve her health. She attended a seminar with her husband in 1994. "But after seminar, I knew Master Li told us the goal to be a human and the underlying reasons for many things I can not understand. I felt my insights to the world and the life were broadened. So I decided to practice Falun Gong," she said. Both women said the Chinese government shouldn't have banned Falun Gong. Practitioners tried peaceful demonstrations but "many Chinese practitioners (were) detained, jailed and beaten to death. I feel Chinese government should stop the persecution," Pan said. Jiang said she doesn't plan to return to China anytime soon. She fears for her safety. "It would be dangerous for me," she added. "I know some Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and imprisoned." Pan graduates in May but doesn't have plans to go home either. "I have a little worry about my safety, because I do not want to give up my belief," she said.