Teachings of Falun Gong
The teachings of Falun Gong were introduced to the public by Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. Falun Gong is also known as Falun Dafa (Great Law of the Law Wheel). Its teachings cover spiritual, religious, mystical and metaphysical topics. Falun Gong was the fastest growing qigong practice in Chinese history, and had attracted 70 million practitioners before onset of the persecution in mainland China in July 1999. Falun Gong is founded on the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance", which are articulated in the core book Zhuan Falun, published in late 1994. According to the texts, Falun Gong is a complete system of mind-body "cultivation practice". Li says "Falun Buddha Fa is a great, high-level cultivation way of the Buddha School, in which assimilation to the supreme nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the foundation of cultivation practice."Cultivation" refers to upgrading xinxing (mind nature or moral quality), which includes "looking within" when encountering problems, giving up human attachments to greed, selfishness, anger, lust etc., and abiding by moral principles. "Practice" refers to purifying the body with the set of five Falun Gong exercises. Its ultimate purpose, according to Li, is to enable people to attain the Tao and complete cultivation practice, to ascend spiritually and "free themselves from the worldly state." Aside from Zhuan Falun there are 1500-2000 pages of supplementary materials; these are lectures Li gives periodically, later posted to a main Falun Gong website. University of California professor Yuezhi Zhao describes Falun Dafa as "a multifaceted and totalizing movement that means different things to different people, ranging from a set of physical exercises and a praxis of transformation to a moral philosophy and a new knowledge system." Falun Gong embraces belief in a metaphysic that is largely unseen, including gods, reincarnation, karma, and a multi-dimensional world. Some journalists have cited parts of Li's teachings as peculiar, while academics maintain that Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong can only be properly understood within their historical and cultural context. Falun Gong is practiced in 80 countries and the books have been translated into 14 languages.
Source: Wikipedia Website: en.wikipedia.org