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Although I still support Taoist - Buddha School concepts and Zhen (Truth) - Shan (Kindness) - Ren (Forbearance), in light of some statements reported in a 28 February 2003 revised draft translation on a clearwisdom.net web page to have been said by Li Hongzhi,

I do not, as of today 8 March 2003, any longer recognize Li Hongzhi as an authentic Teacher/Master.

The relevant statements are:

"... No being knows who I am. ...
   
... Where did I come from then? 
I came from the inside and from the outside. 
I came from nothing and formed into something. 
I appeared at the pinnacle of the colossal firmament, 
and from there 
I descended into the most surface of the Three Realms step by step. ... 
   
... I came to the lowest level ... in order 
to ... save all sentient beings ...
   
... Master has gathered the lives of 
all of the cosmos's sentient beings 
and various elements into his body ... 
   
... I have paid back all the sins 
committed by all sentient beings in the Three Realms. ...
... I really bore for you the sins 
that you have committed over hundreds and thousands of years. ...
... I will also offer you salvation 
and turn you into Gods. ...
... Since the beginning of time, 
not a single God had dared to do this, 
and such a thing had never occurred. ...". 

In a 1996 Beijing translation of Zhuan Falun (volume II), Li Hongzhi said:

"... There exists something of a plane ... called Original God. There is no point in talking about it to the cultivators of today. It is unimaginable and beyond the reach of them. ..."

''... Man is in the lowest plane, above which there are planes of heaven. Tathagata was in such a plane. Jesus ... and Lao Zi ... belonged to the plane of Tathagata ... In such a plane, they could only see things below them. They could see very few things above them and even nothing of the higher planes ..."

"... The .... Buddha ... who is on a ... higher plane does not take care of the human affairs. When men invoke him, he does not hear. ..."

"... What Buddha Sakyamuni preached at his level was the Law of Tathagata, which is very high in the eyes of an ordinary person. ... But Tathagata is not the highest but the lowest Buddha in the universe. Only a Buddha of the lowest rank can administer affairs of ordinary people. ... Nor does the Buddha Tathagata administer them directly. He only gives guidance, and the things will be done by Bodhisattvas. ...".

Further:

I do not think that Li Hongzhi has "gathered the lives of all of the cosmos's sentient beings ... into his body"; and

I do not think that Li Hongzhi has "... paid back all the sins committed by all sentient beings"; and

I do not think that Li Hongzhi can "turn ...[his followers]... into Gods"; and

I think that it is not true that "Since the beginning of time, not a single God had dared to ... offer ... salvation".

Since I still support Taoist - Buddha School concepts and Zhen (Truth) - Shan (Kindness) - Ren (Forbearance), and since those aspects of Falun Dafa are what I have described on my web pages prior to today, 8 March 2003, I am leaving the remainder of this page, and related pages, substantially as they were on 8 March 2003 and I do not expect to update them in the future.

Over 500 people have died from police torture and brutality since Jiang Zemin's Chinese government banned Falun Dafa.

 Their deaths are Swords in the Hearts of all who practice

Zhen - Shan - Ren,

the Principles of FALUN DAFA,

In his 30 November 2002 Teaching in Philadelphia, Li Hongzhi said, in part:

... those Great Enlightened Beings have a lot of things ... that they too need to coordinate and discuss with each other ... Buddha Sakyamuni said that there are as many Tathagatas as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River ... So what's their state of mind?

... When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different ... , but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things. ...

... It doesn't matter how high an old-force being's level is, if it can't place itself properly in this balance of things it's in danger and will be weeded out during the cosmos's Fa-rectification ...

... there are ... connections between a person's mind and factors in a lot of different dimensions ... what's manifest here in the human world is that ...[ Jiang Zemin's ]... jealousy of Dafa is being manipulated by evil beings in other dimensions who are using that buffoon's evilness to create such a ... shameful event -- the evil, ludicrous persecution of Dafa students. ...

... The persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples has now lasted for over three years, and in no time it'll be four years ... This is a kind of natural manifestation, but, this ... really systematic arrangement ... by the old forces ... that goes from top to bottom ... is utterly shocking to even the beings of the greater cosmos. ...

In a draft translation of his book Fojia Xiulian Dafa, China Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi said:

"... The primordial cosmos ... was quite homogeneous. In the course of its ... evolution, life was generated. This primordial life ... was in conformity with the cosmos. No bad things existed at that time. To be in conformity with the cosmos means that one is the same as the cosmos ... With the development and evolution of the cosmos ... more and more beings emerged ... they formed a social community ... some beings began to ... deviate ... from the cosmic qualities ... their powers became diminished. ... with the degeneration of the beings lower and lower spaces have been created until we have gopt the human world as it is today ... That is why we paractitioners lay stress on "returning to the truth", that is, returning to the primordial state. The higher plane one is on, the more he is assimilated to the cosmos ...".

In Zhuan Falun (Fair Winds Press, 2001, Lecture Five) Li Hongzhi says:

"... Our cultivation practice is guided by Zhen-Shan-Ren [ Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance ], the nature of the universe, and by the principles of the cosmos' evolution. ... this Falun emblem is a miniature of the universe. The Buddha school conceptualized the universe as a world of ten directions with four faces and eight sides. ... This universe consists of two major schools, the Buddha School and the Tao School. ... The Tao School teaches a lot of disciples, but only one disciple receives the genuine teachings. The Buddha School believes in salvation of all beings, so whoever can practice cultivation may do it. ... Confucianism belongs to the Tao School; when many Western religious cultivation practices reach high levels, they are classified as ... the Buddha school. ...

... In addition to the Buddha School and the Tao School, there is the Unconventional School ... This Unconventional School has never been made public ... it also has strict xinxing [ mind or heart nature; moral character ] requirements. Its cultivation practice also follows the nature of the universe ... It does not widely teach disciples, and it is taught to a very small population. ... Some people wonder that while the Buddha School cultivates Buddhahood and the Tao School cultivates the Tao, what will a Unconventional School practitioner become after completing cultivation? This person will be a wandering god without a definite boundary in the universe. ... Every Tathagata or great Buddha has his or her own paradise ... many of his or her disciples live there. Yet one from the Unconventional School does not have a designated boundary in the universe, and this person will be like a wandering god or lonesome immortal. ...".

According to a 7 March 2002 article on the BBC: "... China's banned Falun Gong spiritual movement has managed to make an uncut TV transmission ... which condemned the Communist state's crackdown on the movement, replaced state television for about 50 minutes. ... The broadcast accused the authorities of staging the self-immolation of two alleged Falun Gong members on Beijing's central Tiananmen Square last year. Falun Gong's office in New York said it had broadcast two films on eight of the 32 TV channels broadcast to Changchun, starting at 2000 local time on Tuesday ...".

According to news reports and the text and video of the broadcast from the Clearwisdom.net web site:

"... Following a March 5, evening broadcast of programs supportive of Falun Gong in northeastern China, a furious president Jiang Zemin has ordered a series of executions targeting all persons involved and other practitioners of Falun Gong throughout China. Jiang is said to have ordered, "Kill them without pardon," immediately following the event. ...

... at 2:41 pm on January 23rd, on the northeast side of the People's Hero Monument, a man named Wang Jindong set himself on fire.  "Four policemen immediately surrounded the man with several fire extinguishers."

"In less than one minute, the fire was put out."  A few minutes later on the north side of the People's Hero Monument, four women also set themselves on fire. 

A minute and a half later, the police had put out those fires. The entire scene played out in less than 7 minutes. ... In Beijing, the closest building to the People's Hero Monument is at least 10 minutes away.  Where did the policemen get the equipment and how did they get it so quickly?  Why would 2 police vehicles be carrying 25 pieces of firefighting equipment to patrol TiananmenSquare? ...

... Normally, the surveillance camera in Tiananmen Square covers a fixed area.  But on this particular day, the camera follows the police to the scene and zooms in to focus on the incident. ... The Chinese media claims that it was CNN journalists who recorded the close-up shots. But the head of the International Department of CNN stated that CNN did not film anything because at the very beginning of the incident, CNN reporters were arrested and their equipment confiscated. CNN did not have a chance to shoot any footage. ...

... The Xinhua News Agency claimed that Ms. Liu Chunling died from self-immolation, but a closer look at the video shows she might have died from a hard blow to the head.

If we slow the video down, we can see that while Ms. Liu struggles in the fire, she is struck on the head by something from behind. ...

... If we pause the tape, we can see someone's arm waving very close to Ms. Liu's head. We can also see a man wearing an overcoat standing at the spot where the object came from. 

His pose suggests someone who has just used force. ...

... Ms. Liu is the mother of the 12-year-old who also set herself on fire. ... Authorities did not allow any reporters other than those from the Xinhua News Agency to interview 12-year-old Siying, nor did they allow any of her family members to visit. ... Two months after the incident in Tiananmen Square, the hospital announced the sudden death of Siying. Did this 12-year-old, who was able to sing just a few days after a tracheotomy and major burn surgery, really die? ...".

The torture deaths of Falun DaFa practitioners resulted from the actions of the government of Jiang Zemin during the years 1999-2002:

Jiang Zemin's government has even extended its repression to the USA:

According to a faluninfo.net web page:

"... "All Americans should be very upset that the Chinese totalitarian regime, under the orders of its leader Jiang Zemin, has been conducting unethical and illegal activities in the U.S. on a wide scale. It is important that we utilize our Judiciary system to stop this. It must be made clear to Jiang Zemin that his persecution policies have no place in the modern world and certainly not here in the United States of America." -- Ambassador Mark Palmer, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary and Co-Chairman of Freedom House ...

... Physical assault and violence have frequently been used on U.S. citizens and residents who are known to practice Falun Gong. On most occasions, the assailtants appear to be thugs hired by local Chinese officials. However, some assault cases directly involving officials from Chinese consulates and Embassies have also occurred. The following are just a few examples.

• In November 1999, Mr. Tao Wang was participating in a peaceful sit-in outside the Chinese Embassy when he was surrounded, accosted and threatened by approximately 25 Chinese individuals who had all emerged from the Embassy. Also in Washington DC, in November of 2000, Hailian Zhang was physically attacked while distributing Falun Gong literature, having individuals screaming at him: "Hit him! Hit him! Beat him up! You practice Falun Gong-- you ask for death!"
• On October 22, 2000 in San Francisco's China Garden Park, Sheng Mei was physically attacked by a mob of thugs while distributing Falun Gong literature.  The assailants punched him repeatedly and shouted allegations about Falun Gong practitioners identical to those published in various Chinese government-controlled newspapers. The attack on Mei was part of a larger assault involving a group of 30-40 thugs hired by Chinese Consulate personnel.
• On September 7, 2001 in Chicago, Illinois, Lin Fang was physically attacked while distributing Falun gong literature near the Chinese consulate. The assailants pushed him up against a fence and pummeled him repeatedly. As they left, one of them reportedly said: "If you sue us, we'll kill you."
• On January 16, 2002, in San Francisco Mr. Jason Wu, whose picture had been taken on two separate occasions by visiting Chinese officials while he was distributing Falun Gong literature, had a window in the second floor of his house shot out with a gun. ...

... "This meddling in ...[ the USA ]... bears an uncanny resemblance to the efforts of the Nazi government of Germany in the 1930's to persuade the rest of the world that persecution of its citizens simply was not taking place. And the parallels don't end there. Today, as was also the case in 1930's Germany, major American corporations have significant investments in China. The temptation is to look the other way, to ignore what is happening because we are fearful of disrupting trade in an emerging market. If there is one lesson we should have learned from the 1930's, turning a blind eye to such events will cost us dearly in the long run." - Saratoga Council Member and former Mayor Stan Bogosian's press statement in San Francisco on April 4, 2001 ...".

Events leading up to China's ban of Falun Dafa: April 1999; May 1999 ; July 1999. On 22 July 1999, according to Xinhua:

China Bans Falun Gong

Issues Arrest Warrant for Li Hongzhi

"BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China today banned the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control after deeming them to be illegal. In its decision on this matter issued today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that according to investigations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa had not been registered according to law and had been engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability. The decision said that therefore, in accordance with the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Mass Organizations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control are held to be illegal and are therefore banned. Enditem"

"China has ordered the arrest of the leader of the banned Falun Gong meditation sect as part of its continuing campaign to eradicate the movement. The Ministry of Public Security issued what it called a "Wanted circular" for the arrest of the group's founder, Li Hongzhi, for disturbing public order. The ministry appealed for international co-operation to secure the arrest of Mr Li, who lives in the United States, and said it had sent details to Interpol. ... The BBC's David Willis in Beijing says Mr Li would face immediate arrest if he were to attempt to return to China, and by seeking the assistance of Interpol, the authorities are clearly also looking into the possibility of extradition. There is however no extradition treaty between China and the United States. ...".

Li Hongzhi said:

"Falun Gong is simply a popular qigong activity. It does not have any particular organization, let alone any political objectives. We have never been involved in any anti-government activities. I am a cultivator myself, and I have never been destined to be involved in political power. I am just teaching people how to practice cultivation. ...

We are not against the government now, nor will we be in the future. Other people may treat us badly, but we do not treat others badly, nor do we treat people as enemies. ...".

As maintainer of this web page, I state that it is my personal opinion that

If the Chinese Government would treat Falun Dafa as its Friend, Falun Dafa COULD BE A GOOD FRIEND to the Chinese Government.

On 22 July 1999, Xinghua reported that a Communist Party of China circular said that "... Marxist dialectic materialism and historical materialism represent the world outlook and methodology of the proletariat, and that the scientific theories of Marxism established on the basis of this world view should serve as the spiritual pillar ...".

What about the Spiritual Pillar of Taoism?

• Optical Lenses;
• Circulation of Blood in the Human Body "... in the Chinese medical treatise Su Wên, written in the second century BC ...", according to correspondence from P.-L. Chau in Nature 404 (30 March 2000) 431;
• Magnetic Compass (described by Wang Chhung in the Lun Heng of 83 AD);
• Computers (the abacus of Thien Mu hsien-seng, around 190 AD); and
• Gunpowder (Cheng Yin, the teacher of Ko Hung, around 250 AD).

Before the Death of Deng Xiaoping, there was no Ban of Falun Dafa.

 Is the regime of Jiang Zemin repeating the Errors of the Cultural Revolution?

According to an AP report on 26 July 1999: "...The state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary Monday [26 July 1999] ... "In fact, the so-called

To me, it is very sad that

the regime of Jiang Zemin has decided that its goals have nothing in common with Truth, Kindness, and Forbearance.

I remember the days of Deng Xiaoping, who said:

"It does not matter whether a Cat is Black or White, it only matters that it Catches Mice."

 Unlike the increasing prosperity of the regime of Deng Xiaoping,

the regime of Jiang Zemin has produced "... escalating violent protests and strikes among a discontented workforce. ...

... The decision to extend the "Labour Day" holiday to a week for 300 million urban workers seems to have been taken shortly before May 1st [2000] and had a whiff of panic about it. Analysts see it as a barely disguised attempt to defuse an increasingly explosive atmosphere among a workforce facing Western-style job insecurities combined with falling wages. ... Beijing is terrified of a workers' rights movement emerging from the spread of isolated protests, and of China spawning the kind of Polish-style free trade union that helped topple communism in eastern Europe in the Eighties. ... There is an almost uniform bitterness among ordinary Chinese against officials and company managers who have been able to enrich themselves from their positions. ... corruption is still on the increase. One Hong Kong academic estimates that the party-appointed management of state-run factories skim more than £8 billion into their own bank accounts - usually overseas - every year. ... eerily reminiscent of the dying days of the Soviet bloc a decade ago ... ", according to an article in the London Telegraph by Damien Mcelroy in Beijing, Sunday, 7 May 2000.

Here is a Falun Dafa Information Web Site.

• The first Falun Dafa seminar in the USA of Teacher Li Hongzhi was in Houston on 1996 October 12, the date of a partial Solar Eclipse visible from Eastern Canada to Africa.
• On 1996 October 19, Teacher Li also gave a Falun Dafa seminar in New York City.
•  On 1997 March 23, the day after Comet Hale-Bopp was nearest Earth, there was a partial Lunar Eclipse, and Teacher Li Hongzhi gave a Falun Dafa seminar in Manhattan, New York City.
• On 1997 April 6, Teacher Li Hongzhi also gave a Falun Dafa seminar in San Francisco.
• On 1998 March 28-29, in New York City, Teacher Li Hongzhi attended The U.S. Falun Dafa Conference.
• A Western US Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was in Los Angeles on 1999 February 20-21.
• An Eastern US Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Convention was in New York on 1999 March 27-28.

More FALUN DAFA information, including

TRANSLATIONS OF BOOKS INTO MANY LANGUAGES,

can be found at these web sites and at links listed therein:

• USA
• CANADA
• ATLANTA
• NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - BOOKS
• NEW YORK
• MICHIGAN
• GA TECH - CL
• GA TECH - ZT2
• CALTECH

"... During the period of time after July 20, 1999, probably every student felt that the evil seemed to penetrate everything, being everywhere. ... A lot of students made it through, steadfast, after reflecting. Truly remarkable. ...

... In human society nowadays there are a lot of bad phenomena, bad people, and bad behavior ... So what should we do about this situation? I'll tell you: nothing. ... We don't get involved in politics at all. ... We're not interested in political power, and we don't want to overthrow your Communist Party. ...

... during Sakyamuni's time or Jesus' time, or even in the case of Lao Zi ... the highest being in the world was man -- the common, ordinary human of this world. ... it's hard for them to understand higher beings ... and it truly is difficult to save them. That's why Sakyamuni taught Arhat-Fa and why he could only save people to the Arhat Attainment Status. ... But today ... ninety percent of the human beings are ones that have come from high levels. ...

... Dafa doesn't have any people in charge. Everyone is a cultivating disciple. Make sure you keep these things in mind. ...".

 

• My Li Hongzhi (LIhome.html) page has been on the web since 1995 (with one interruption in 1999).
• Originally it was at URL http://galaxy.cau.edu/tsmith/LI/LIhome.html.
• Now it is at URL http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/LIhome.html.
• As far as I know, back around November 1995 it was the first and only web page about Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong / Falun Dafa, but soon thereafter other pages appeared at Georgia Tech, Michigan, and many other places around the world.

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