03/03/01

Some of the participants chose to sit cross-legged on the floor while others sat in chairs in the small meeting room at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

Facing them was a bespectacled young Asian man, Will Wu, who began to describe the various hand and arm movements that would help them feel the energy coming from their bodies.

The small group gathered on a recent Saturday to learn about Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, an ancient cultivation practice of mind, body and spirit. ''Cultivation practice,'' the modern phrase for Qigong, refers to the improvement and transformation of a person's body, mind and heart. Qigong healing is one of the disciplines in traditional Chinese medicine. Falun Gong is a high-level Qigong practice that brings holistic improvements besides healing and fitness.

''Fa'' means law or principle, ''lun'' is a wheel, and ''Gong'' is the cultivation of energy and capabilities. Therefore, ''Falun'' may be loosely translated as law wheel. ''Dafa'' means great law or universal principle. Wu, the workshop leader, is a graduate student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. One workshop participant, Jennifer Ballard, has practiced yoga for 10 years. Since the seminar two weeks ago, she has practiced Falun Gong each day.

''It's just remarkable,'' said Ballard, a stay-at-home mom who does local free-lance television production work. ''It's so simple that it allows you to slow down and shut your mind down, even if just for 30 minutes.

"It's hard to capture moments for myself, but this provides time for me and really benefits me more than yoga. The older I get, the more I need something like this.''

Falun Gong has no rituals, worships or precepts, nor does it solicit new members. Participation is free. Falun Gong practitioners are guided by the supreme characteristics of the cosmos, according to literature handed out at the Huntsville workshop.

Zhen-Shan-Ren, or truthfulness-benevolence-forbearance, is meant to help the practitioners constantly upgrade their cultivation levels while becoming a better person, which in turn helps society as a whole.

Falun Gong has five sets of exercises that may be done by anyone at any time:

Fozhan Qianshou Fa movements stretch to open up all energy channels in the body so energy can circulate smoothly.

Falun Zhuang Fa, a standing meditation, is intended to help one attain wisdom and enhance one's energy level.

Guantong Liangji Fa uses the fresh energy from the cosmos to purify the body.

Falun Zhoutian Fa rectifies all the abnormal conditions so energy will pass smoothly throughout the body.

Shentong Jiachi Fa is a comprehensive sitting meditation with several purposes, such as attaining a peaceful mind and strengthening supernormal powers.

For more information on Falun Gong, call (205) 422-4330 or (205) 324-3412, or visit www.falundafa.org or www.faluninfo.net.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/?Mar2001/3-e18871.html