By: Zixian Deng, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science
Shi-min Fang, Ph.D. in Biochemistry
Revised May 31, 2000
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of The American Family Foundation (April 28-29, 2000) in Seattle, WA
Equal authors listed in alphabetical order
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The Organizational Structure
We define organization as a collection of people function in various aspects toward a goal or a set of goals (. This organization theory may extend to the Weberian hypothesis of hierarchy and ordered activities toward a goal. Falun Gong qualifies to be an organization by either definition though it is not a bureaucratic organization - a definition Li and his defenders use to equate with "organization". Because Falun Gong is formed on an attachment to the Master, it qualifies as an emotive organization. However, Li and other disciples insist that they do not organize, citing there was no "formal" appointment or monetary compensation to the local leaders. Their collective activities are coincidence of spontaneity. Or the closest they would concede is that they communicate "heart-to-heart," a mystic ability developed after cultivation. However, evidence exists that Falun Gong is a well-structured group, with four to five layers. The founder sits at the top. This fact has not been challenged. Until 1996, Li was the president of the Falun Dafa Research Society and directly supervised the key "researchers" of the Society (then Institute in Beijing). This core "researcher" group consisted of about a dozen people. The immediate "contacts" (those having direct access to Li) were Wang Wenzhi, Li Chang (a retired high ranking central government official), Rao Jie, and Ji Liewu of Hong Kong. The second layer consisted of the General Councils (or translated as Central Stations) allocated strategically in provincial capitals. The third layer was composed of the "substations" in medium size cities or districts of major cities. The fourth belonged to the "cultivation station" where the numerous assistants were carrying out daily activities to lead the cultivators.
It appears that most organized (or unorganized and spontaneous as insisted by Li) activities were orchestrated with verbal communications and occasionally by the exchanges of fax. Since the hierarchy is centered on the Master and a belief system (rather than a bargaining social organism), with the Research Society of Falun Dafa headed by Li, one-way communication is sufficient for the operation of this organization of millions. For millions of people to believe in words, it required strong trust. While trust reduces transaction and communication cost and improves efficiency, it also creates opportunities for "rumors" by "false" masters. Li is aware of and may have been using this situation. However, a rigid structure entails greater operational and maintenance cost and may even lead legal responsibility.
The challenge to Li is to firmly control the disciples without a formal structure. He has two tools: one is his "scripture," the other is the "collective cultivation" in the purification process. Around 1996, Li and his disciples added three virtual tools: emails, websites and discussion groups. After moving to the United States, Li relied on Erping Zhang and Gail Rachlin of New York as his political representation, communicating to a wider audience through mainstream media.
Aggressive recruiting
Li's organizational success is founded on the aggressive recruiting techniques in addition to selecting highly educated and talented people into the core disciple group. As we read from the original preface of Falun Gong, Li is proud to have high-ranking officials as his disciples. In fact, the two leading figures in Falun Dafa Research Society (then Institute) of Beijing, Li Chang (not related to Master Li) and Rao Jie were a mid-rank leader in the central government and a career administrator in the Beijing city government, respectively. There were other academic figures that Li indoctrinated into his service, using their official capacities. This includes a general (retired) in the air force strategic command, a philosophy professor in the Central Institute of the Chinese Communist Party, and a general-rank surgeon in the Heilongjiang Military Region. They played an important role in recruiting followers for Li by publishing Falun Gong materials in professional papers (such as the Nanfang Hospital report on the Miracles of Falun Gong), and used the prestige of the institutions for promotion of Falun Gong. However, to find a broader clientele, Li's recruiters looked to educational institutions. Li himself gave a good example in a dialogue:
Question: I am a physical training class teacher required to teach my students some other gongfa. Should I teach things such as "single-finger" or Taichi?
Answer: Then you should teach our Falun Dafa. This is a great good thing. Of course, I only tell you so when you want to cultivate Falun Dafa. If you try to teach other stuff, you cannot...[cultivate to completion] (Fajie C, 59).
Clearly, Li is overtly instructing his disciple to substitute his/her normal curriculum with Falun Gong, by using threat. Again, this illustrates the reason why Li wants to use the name "gong" while denying it is a qigong so that it can replace the highly popular breathing exercises. The inclusion of this conversation (thus making it sacred) also conveys to others in the same capacity to follow this example: substitute Falun Gong whenever possible. It would not be a surprise that disciples had always tried to spread the Dafa, even in professional conferences. One disciple physicist announced that he successfully attracted an audience in Dafa at a national convention of physics by attaching Falun Gong materials in his presentation.
While the above examples show how internal recruiting should be done, the aggressive behaviors also include the controversial recruiting from elementary schools by members outside the institutions. This became the catalyst for Prof. He's article in April 1999. He's criticism aimed at the indiscriminate recruiting of children on campus by Falun Gong disciples. There were evidences that the trance young disciples experienced caused mental disorder. Similar examples were used to bolster the potency of Dafa. Li and his adult disciples exchanged proud stories of the young disciples, claiming cultivating as early as 4 (see Switzerland C, QA), and defending the Fa at the age of 10. Obviously, Li is very pleased with the parents and the "assistants" as he lavishes rare praises and hints at great supernormality (being gods) of such children (Li says that he should not praise his disciples, see various sections in the Changchun Lectures).
If recruiting children at schools is a long-term strategy, Li is very unhappy with some disciples trying to postpone cultivation till their retirement. He says: "In particular, the complex environment of the workplace provides a good opportunity for you to upgrade your xinxing. Once retired, won't you lose the best environment for your cultivation practice? What will you cultivate without any conflicts?" (JJYZ E, 16) We suppose losing "the best environment" means two things: once retired, the disciple is less productive and less influential among his/her peer groups and subordinates, thus lost the status associated in the organization; secondly, a retiree also has fewer opportunities to interact with other cohorts, reducing the recruitment instrument values. Cultivating now and here is Li's demand on every disciple, despite another claim that the disciple does not have to cultivate, but be cultivated by the "Gong" of Falun (ZFL, 43).
Violation of property rights
The activities of collective cultivation of such huge groups often came into conflict with the general public in China. First was the competition for public space and the disciples' habit of choosing the busiest hours (before and after office hour) to get together in the busiest streets junctures (as instructed by Li). As in most cities, storefront sidewalks were assigned to the tenants for care and keep and major roads were often packed with traffic. The immediate conflict is the creation of inconvenience to the pedestrians by the disciples. The disciples did not consider the concept of fair use of public space, rather, occupation of it was encouraged by the Master as a way of advertising. However, because of the frequent show of force, no city authority ever attempted to remove them until the April 25, 1999 protests. Similar events happened to those choosing the square in front of the park instead inside the park for their cultivation. While the disciples abused the equal access principle in public space, they sometimes violated property rights by occupying campus of educational institutions. They were shielded with the claim that their removal would have political consequences. Even the removal of the disciples from university campus invited greater protests. In April 1999, about 5 thousands disciples occupied the Tianjin Normal University for two days, repeating the same technique used against other critical television stations and newspapers in the previous years. The arrest of a dozen disciples led to the congregation in Beijing, demanding immediate release with an apology, and reversal of the existing (but not enforced) policies unfavorable to Falun Gong. Very often, the Falun Gong disciples succeeded in their demands, including the firing of offending reporters from Beijing Television, and an open apology from a journal that published an unfavorable account of Falun Gong. That is the behavior Li encouraged as discussed above in the Roles of the Disciples, now frequently referred to as part of the completion of cultivation.
The Process of Purification: The lack of process and the dependence on intervention
Falun never stops refining the practitioner though the practitioner is not practising continually. This is the first and only cultivation way of "the Law refining the practitioner" among all cultivation schools offered today both at home and abroad.
Li Hongzhi, (DYMF E, 2)
Our practice cultivates a Falun in the lower abdomen. I personally install it for practitioners in the class. While I am teaching Falun Dafa, we install it for everyone in succession. (ZFL E, 42) One simply cannot succeed in genuine cultivation without the protection of my fashen. As soon as you step out the door, your life may be in danger. (223)
Xiulian means, in Falun Gong, to exercise and be purified by the fires of tests. In comparison with Buddhist and Daoist methods, Falun Gong lacks the theories and detailed instruction of the process, except the five sets of hand movements copied from some qigong schools. There is also a set of hand movements (Da Shouyin) reserved for the Master to present himself as the Buddha. But this was not new since the Buddhist statues posed similar gestures thousands of years ago. That is to say, Li did not invent the exercises.
While other schools, especially the Buddhists, as well as the Daoists, emphasize the individual efforts in cultivation or "purification;" Falun Gong, instead, advocates total reliance on the Master's intervention: planting the Falun in the lower abdomen "to evolve" "De" into "Gong" and lifting the disciples into the Falun Paradise. It starts with the much benign cultivation of virtues and extended to the vigorously "gentle" defense of Dafa (aka. "hufa").
The usually process of xiulian starts with an uninterrupted reading of Zhuan Falun from cover to cover, once, twice, thrice…until everything is accepted. Li emphasizes the importance of memorizing his words: "Since the development of reciting the Book, instead of making comparison after actions, students know what to do before actions, such doing is very good. Everyone takes the Law study as the necessity for the practice of cultivation energy and even thinks it is more important. I think, other places should study the Law as Changchun does, …"(DFYJ E, 70). To a new initiate, an assistant (fudao yuan in Chinese, were fudao means "to help to learn") would be there to help, to read together, to teach "hand in hand" the five sets of motions of exercises; and sometimes, a number of assistants or veteran disciples would be present. This often takes place in the family environment.
The pitching points of Falun Gong are the virtues and xinxing (soul, mind) improvement. It sounded like a moral education, but it is not what it sounded. While there cannot be any argument against any kind of virtues, much less the virtues of truthfulness, benevolence or forbearance, there are fine prints in the version promoted by Falun Gong. These terms mean specific things that outsiders and new initiates often mistakenly equate with conventional virtues. The Truthfulness meant the teaching of Li's is the only standard of measurement that he embodies the highest enlightenment in spite of contradictory claims, the Benevolence excludes charitable actions (Li's understanding is that, any charity only lengthens the beneficiaries time of suffering), and Forbearance refers only to enduring insults of perceived injustice. For a disciple to find forbearance, it is no difficult task as long as s/he holds the view of superiority to the society, an equivalent of Falun-supremacist attitude. After July 1999, the term forbearance shares new contents. According to Minghui's publication, though it has disavowed any official relationship to Falundafa Research Society, "forbearance" does not mean "cowardice," or "silence," or even simply forbearance, these are the "ordinary people's" forbearance. In adversity, the Minghui disciple author suggests, forbearance means fighting back injustice by the standard of Fa - if you disagree, you have not leant the Fa well - even if the Master does not, cannot or would not explicitly instruct the disciples about the (possible destructive) details.
Falun Gong's "virtues" include a total transform of social framework: What appeared to be good now may certainly be bad. The ordinary "human thoughts" one used to believe as true and fruitful becomes incredulous and poisonous (Sydney, 40). To go through the purification (cultivation) process to reach the completion of cultivation, a disciples must give up the "ordinary people's thoughts" (Singapore, 5-6). Li starts with a very reasonable and pacificst-sounding starting point in conflict reduction and competition reduction. "You must cultivate and temper yourself in the environment of everyday people and gradually abolish attachments and various desires." But for the reason "oftentimes, what our humankind considers good is usually bad from the perspective of higher levels" (ZFL E, 30), a totally new valuation is required. Therefore, this "giving up" is not a sacrifice of values, but for the next step of transformation of reference framework. In fact, there is no sacrifice in this process, simply because a change of mind would render all past valuation system valueless. This would have greater implication when Li applies it to create his new science.
Li emphasizes that the disciples should be totally different from the ordinary people in that:
You must completely dispose of the desires of ordinary people, immoral thoughts, and the intention of wrongdoing…. In the meantime, you should also suffer a little bit and endure some hardships to reduce your karma. You can then move up a little bit…
With that done, the body can be purified, transformed with the material called De, into "Gong". However, it is the job of the master to perform the purification of bodies: "We are purifying your body, and the term is not 'healing diseases,' either. We just call it 'purifying the body,' and we clean out the bodies of true practitioners" (ZFL E, 40). But there are exceptions that would eliminate self-selection problems from two extremes, one from the "hopelessly ill," the other from those desiring health:
We do not treat diseases here. …As to seriously ill patients, we do not let them attend the classes since they cannot give up the attachment to having illness cured or the idea of being ill. … We have stressed from time to time that we do not admit patients with serious diseases.
However, that only serves to enhance Li's claim:
Of course, many practitioners have illnesses. Because you are true practitioners, we will take care of these things for you" (ibid.,, 40-41).
From this passage, we understand two things. First, one has every side benefits, intended or unintended to become a true practitioner by Li's measure. Second, the Master plays the crucial role in protecting the bodies of the disciples, this leads to the controversy of the health claims as we discuss below, and the two extreme experiences for the disciples defying the government ban in China. On one end, the disciples claim receiving Li's Fashen protection and went on hunger strikes without harms; on the other end, great sufferings ensued for different disciples from the same behaviors (for individual cases, see http://minghui.ca).
Li draws a theoretical difference between "treating diseases" and "purifying bodies." By "treating diseases," according to Li, the disciple is not seeking the Fa, but his/her own bodily health. Once one becomes a true disciple, the Master takes care of the body. The demarcation in healing is the "faith" and devotion. The appropriate method of purification is developed in cultivation in other traditions. However, cultivation is different in Falun Gong. Li mentions that he would intervene in the disciples' cultivation by giving them special blessings remotely, including planting a wheel in their bodies, a method possibly copied from the popular sci-fi alien novels. Li also performs remote control: "Guanding is a reinforcing method for purifying and further cleaning up your body. One will go through guanding many times - your body must be cleaned up at every level" (ZFL E, 170). To achieve that, "we do not need to be concerned with everyday people, as they just want to be everyday people and find temporary relief. You, however, are a practitioner. Don't you want to continually purify your body?" (ibid.,, 246) With this supremacist indoctrination, " The purpose of practicing qi is to substitute the qi inside one's body with good qi from outside, and to purify the body." While the qi comes from outside, it alone cannot be utilized lacking the master as the transformer. The useful "Gong" evolution has to be performed by the Master - one on one through his Fashen. Moreover, the qi did not come alone but through the spinning wheel the Master installed in the navel of the disciples (ibid.,, 307; for a symbol of the spinning wheel, see any front page of Falun Gong publications). To sum, xiulian is nothing more than dependence on the Master's intervention. Moreover, xiulian has meant, especially after 1996, a series of tests that are masterminded for the disciples. On a larger scale, one that is beyond the individual disciples, Li forecast a purification process that advocated tests. On March 16, 1999, Li issued a stern warning: Dafa should not be misused. Li complains, while the greatness of Dafa is recognized with and beyond the "three realms of life," there are pretending disciples who are merely using Dafa for their own benefits. Li considers them unfit to ascend to his Falun World. This continues from Li's earlier writings, especially in his "Dialogue with Time" (7-3-97, JJYZ E, 57-58). Li talks with the God (divine being) of time about his disciples, indicating a part of them would even descend below human level after some tests, casting fears among the disciples as expressed in their questions in the Switzerland Lectures. The revelation of this dialogue is a significant part of Li's theology, as we dissect in the endnote.
The location for xiulian is a question of dispute. Li assigns public sidewalks, parks and squares as the location for "collective cultivation." It has triple purposes. First, it serves as an advertisement, a test of courage and cohesion, and a group distinction from the ordinary (JJYZ E, 64-65). Second, it is a cost-saving devise by occupying public space for group activities. Third, it affords a blanket denial of organization. It is suspected that Li has designed this arrangement at the beginning simply to deny itself as an organization. However, it is a common practice for small group of Qigong exercisers to practice in parks, dispersed. The difference that Li makes is, especially after abandoning the qiji concept, his effect to turn "cultivation" into a public statement. Among the three possible explanations for such behaviors, the first is direct supported by Li's own "scripture". Li accuses some new disciples trying to hide, while allowing the veterans such a privilege.
There are also many new Dafa practitioners who are secretly practicing at home, fearing the embarrassment of others finding out. Think about it: What kind of though is this? … Cultivation practice is a very serious matter. How should you treat yourself and the Fa. There are also people in leadership positions that find it embarrassing to go out and practice the exercises. If you cannot even overcome such a trivial feeling, what can you cultivate? … How can this be the conduct of a Dafa disciple? (JJYZ E, 64-65)
The second reason is found by Li's continued concerns with "cost and benefit." In one of his earlier lectures to form Zhuan Falun, Li adds to his lectures conditions for his Fashen to remain with the disciples: his fees collected are lowest in China and did not mean a profit, and "you cannot hold a class and collect fees as I do" (ZFL E, 139). While the sources of income is the sale of the Falun emblems and the books authored by Li, Li becomes the sole beneficiary of Falun Gong activities, leaving no funds to the local groups and depriving them possibility of independence in deciding their own activities. This condition basically left the local activities no financial resources to carry out their cultivation practices as other groups (such as the Buddhists, Daoist, or even the qigong groups) do. The third is a matter of control. Without direct membership support, the legitimacy of the local branches has to rely on Li's authority. They have no rights or means to question, much less deviate from Li's personal instruction. Evidently, the cultivation locale is better public than private, better in groups than as individuals so that conformity is enforced to confirm the supreme authority of the Master. Li's later advocacy of a belief system based on his Falun blurs the line of separation of religion and proper and fair use of public property. Without a religious label, Li did not have to respond to the ground rules that others (such as major religious organizations) had to comply with. Without a collectively funded space, Li did not have to be burdened by the upkeeps of the church or activities centers.
Collective Cultivating
Cultivating together has many advantages according to Li. The first is to arouse the disciples out of the closet, forcing them to declare their beliefs in public. Li scolds those considering a "stay-at-home" cultivation as cowards, calling them shameful "ordinary people," meaning deserving damnations at the end of the Havoc (JJYZ E, 64). Additionally, a public display like the five thousand gathering in October 1998 in front of the Guangzhou Memorial Park had a shock effect creating the publicity as a show of strength. Such a display gave Li a bargaining chip as he envisioned in early 1999.
As an organization, collective cultivation synchronizes behaviors in the form of training. The effect is the amazement to the observers on April 25,1999 when 15,000 disciples mobilized to the precise standing location without any sign of disturbance and demobilized in 10 minutes, proudly leaving no traces behind. It required training to the military precision. Without daily collective cultivation, this cannot be achieved even with the celestial supernormal power - they had to move the non-celestial bodies into place. The second advantage of collective cultivation is related to the discussion of Peer pressure and the evil forces. Li could not physically supervise every disciple, and he admits to that effect despite the omnipotent Fashen (Changchun, 3). He has to balance between creating a large following at the same time preventing doctrinal usurpations (see JJYZ E, 55). Li cautions, "They came in many forms: in some regions people organize the so-called 'Fa-preaching groups' without permission, acting pretentiously among practitioners and swindling people everywhere. There are people who also invite individuals to give speeches, thereby undermining and interfering with practitioners' cultivation practice. On the surface these people appear to be promoting Dafa, but in reality they are promoting themselves" (JJYZ E, 55). The solution is to put these activities under control through a systematic monitoring - mutual supervision through collective cultivation.
This type of group activities has all the attributes of an organization: set place, set time, appointed leaders and a common purpose. It has a hierarchy in the leadership and is guided by one set of doctrines. Even in the United States, the Fa-preaching is done in a group, consistent with the initialization process conducted on individuals in China (See a Minghui.ca report on a small Fa-preaching group actively touring small towns in Texas, April 4, 2000). The emphasis on collective cultivation does not appear to cause any doubts of the individual salvations among the disciples. Li sometimes considers the ascension so far on the individual bases, not the cultivation group a disciple happened to join (contrary ideas are present in his Switzerland Lectures).
The Cases of Self-Destructive Behaviors
Upon becoming ill, the person will take medicine or seek various kinds of treatments that in effect press the sickness back into the body again. Consequently, instead of paying for the sickness-karma from his wrongdoing in the previous life, he will do some additional bad things in this life to hurt others; this will bring about new sickness-karma and lead to different kinds of sicknesses.
Li Hongzhi, (JJYZ E, 25)
The focus of the contention between Falun Gong and its opponents is the cases of self-destructive behaviors that some of the disciples demonstrated in the past six years. One of the catalytic cases involved a doctoral student enrolled in the Chinese Academy of Science. After practicing Falun Gong in 1996, he spent most of his time in a psychotic state and withdrew from the community. After his professor's intervention, he was sent to the hospital for treatment. However, his mental disorder remitted after he was released from the hospital and being contacted by his former fellow practitioners. He rejoined the group. The Falun Gong disciples did not dispute the facts of this case but the causes. They turned against this student accusing him as not being truthful to Falun Gong - he practiced other Qigong at the same time, thus violated the "no other way" doctrine of Falun Gong and deformed the Falun. Other extreme cases are reported from the Chinese medical and government sources involving grave behaviors - manslaughters (under insanity), suicides (Xu 1999), self-mutilations (Anonymous 1999), and refusal of food (see continuous reports from Minghui.ca). Since these cases are originated from China, the disciples now either dismiss their significance or the existence as such all together. When cornered with proofs, the disciples claim these results better than the accident rates in the normal population, disregarding the controlling variables such as cohorts in statistical comparisons.
Although now Li repeatedly denies it when facing questions from journalists, it is evident from Li's "scriptures" and lectures that he promotes an anti-scientific approach to disease and medicine (see ZFL E, 222, 291-301). Instead of seeking medical treatment, Li promises that his Fashen would cure all diseases for the disciples (ZFL E, 128). The results were often tragic for those contracted curable diseases but missed the treatment opportunities. Li's insistence on the disciple's refusal of treatment is based on a belief that disease is the result of a form of karma, or "a black substance resulted from previous wrongdoing," and using medicine to cure disease could not eliminate karma, therefore it is wrong and prohibitive to seek medical treatment: "Due to karma resulting from past wrongdoing, one has illnesses or tribulations; suffering is repaying a karmic debt, and thus nobody can casually change this. Changing it means that one would not have to repay the debt after being in debt, and this cannot be done at will. Doing otherwise is the same as committing a bad deed." Moreover, "How can his karma be casually eliminated? It is absolutely prohibited" (ZFL E: chapter 1). But of course disease did occur and those patients following Li's teaching might die of missed treatment opportunities. Li's response to this situation was to deny any responsibility and accused those patients are not true Falun Gong disciples. When a disciple asked him why her husband, also a Falun Gong disciple, died from heart attack, Li cruelly ridiculed this unfortunate disciple: "He did daily cultivation like doing physical exercises, why he can't die? I say that would be a joke" (Frankfurt lecture, May 30-31, 1998).
Traditional qigong schools are fully aware such problems and warn their followers of the danger of hallucination. They would stop the exercises whenever symptoms of hallucination are detected. Falun Gong, however, differentiates from traditional qigong schools by completely denying the possibility of uncontrolled and unsupervised hallucination and deep trance. In fact, Falun Gong disciples are encouraged to seek hallucination. It is taught by Li that only those disciples with high level could open their so-called "Celestial Eye," and saw "beyond our dimension into other time-spaces, and he can see scenes that ordinary people cannot see" (ZFL E: chapter 2). The disciples are encouraged to find three flowers from other time-spaces above their head, to watch the scenes in Falun World, etc. This practice could easily lead to mental disorder. In the next section, we address the causes of these behaviors.
Notes:
40. For specific numbers as cited by the Chinese authority, see footnote 25, above.
41. See http://minghui.ca/gb/0001/Mar/16/zhishenhufa_10-year-old_031600.html.
42. See Sydney E, page 4, where he suggested a reading of ten thousand times.
43. In various English versions, it is translated as "assistant" [to the Master], or veteran disciples (see YJ E, 1).
44. We had always considered Minghui.ca and Falundafa Research Society the same organization. For example, an urgent Falundafa Bulletin dated March 25, 2000 appeared on Minghui.ca on the same day, but it was not on the Falundafa.org own site as of April 4, 2000, ten days after its first "urgent" issue. In the Falundafa site, there is a statement: "Please only trust falundafa websites (such as www.falundafa.org, www.falundafa.ca, www.minghui.ca)
for important announcements or publications from Falun Dafa (Falun Gong)" (http://www.falundafa.org/fldfbbotice0120.html).
45. Anonymous author from Beijing. March 17, 2000. "Good People and Forbearance." Minghui.ca. http://minghui.ca/gb/0001/Mar/18/zuohaoren_ren_BJ_031700.html
46. The plural form is misused here. In Switzerland, Li explained that the plural pronoun referred to "a modern way of address people in mainland China." Then, he gave a different conclusion: "I feel that you all are part of Dafa, thus an element of Dafa, I call you as 'we'" (Switzerland C, 50).
47. A term Li borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, where it originally means a spiritual ritual in which the initiates received blessing from the Buddha.
48. In recent claims by the disciples, the tests were merely a utilization of exposing devils in and outside the Dafa. This claim differed from those in the past where Li himself set up all the testing events for disciples toward completion of cultivation (cf. Anonymous Pupil in the US. 2000. A Clarification of Thoughts.
http://minghui.ca/gb/0001/Mar/17/zhengli-sixu-suibi_031100.html. After all the disclaimers from Minghui, I would still consider this a trial balloon of doctrinal change to deflect dissatisfactions of some disciples who had to physically "forbear" the hardship in Hufa.
49. The Chinese words literally are: Dafa can never by stolen. In the February 2000 version of the translation, it reads: Dafa Can Never be Plagiarized. Significant of this latest translation of Li's "scripture" is the standardized translation of this term, now it is "scripture," defined as articles to be frequently read (JJYZ E, 53).
50. Li defended his charging a fee as the way to pay for his travel expenses and for compensation of printing his Falun Gong books. This was the Chinese government official charge against Li for tax evasions, illegal business practice (printing materials after they were banned), and profiteering through intermediaries.
51. See http://minghui.ca/gb/0001/Apr/04/Hongfa_Texas2_040200.html
52. The creation of the civic group website "Pipan Falun Gong" (Criticizing Falun Gong, now defunct) originated from Zhao Chengjun's friend dying from the belief of Falun Gong and refusing medication.
(New Threads, Revised May 31, 2000)
