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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A contention often raised by the Falun Gong disciples and defenders is that the critics are not insiders, therefore, any understanding other than theirs (the insider) is mistaken. We dispute this proposition on two foundations. First, there are observable behaviors that are open to objective evaluations. That is, when people behave, we can see and measure their activities. We can know, to a certain degree, their causalities. Even when a disciple declared seeing a city-size Fashen of Li's over Beijing, we may listen or read his/her description and test the collaborating evidence, or we may observe such observers' behaviors - such as would he or she talk to such a Fashen - to identify their mental states. Second, because Li insists on passing his "great law" to the world, there are publications in many different languages that can be read (though they may differ from the live lectures in the usage of words and tones). We cannot believe that the disciples were insiders of Falun Gong before they came into contact of Falun Gong (a book) or Zhuan Falun, as Rachlin indicates, 98% of the disciples have never met Li. Publication (including the electronic format) is the means of communication to most insiders. If it is the same text we are reading, our interpretation deserves consideration. Moreover, our observation from "outside" allows us to compare this group with other groups, an advantage deprived of the "insiders." In this section, we rely on Li's publication to discuss issues relating to their internal relationships.

The Role of the Master (Shifu): I am the Savior and thou shall obey

Margaret Singer (1996, 8) identifies that a self-appointed leader is an essential component of cults. Falun Gong does not disappoint cult observers in this aspect. There is only one leader in Falun Gong. This distinction between the leader and the followers can be made according to the role of the Master among the various organization of believes: The responsibility, the credit and his/her relationship to the disciples. The major responsibility of cult leader is the sole personal authority of the interpretation of the doctrines.

The difference between Falun Gong and other cults is most significant in the role of the Shifu, or Master, or Fatherly Teacher in literal translation. According to Martin (1997), cults may change their leaders in the process of doctrinal disputes. However, this is impossible in Falun Gong. The Master's status cannot be disputed: he is the author and sole interpreter of whatever he writes. To discourage different interpretations, Li does not allow the existence of local "spiritual" leaders to exit, but only allow them to organize simply as tools at the Liangong dian (exercise spots) level, or as functionaries in the communication channels. The Doctrinal authority and the salvation possibility rest with the inventor of Falun Gong (Fajie C, 18). This status is safeguarded in the doctrines themselves (see DYMF E, 35 where Li imitates the Buddhist sutra, insisting "All the disciples must say 'Master Li Hongzhi says …' or 'Master Li Hongzhi states …' in the activities of publicizing Falun Dafa").

The original promise of Falun Gong is "daylight ascension" to the Falun World. This promise seems to be in defiance of gravity. But it can be achieved by replacing the qi with "Gong" through the improvement of the soul according the design of the Master. Though calling it the Buddha Law (Fofa), Li never goes beyond quoting a single phrase, not even a complete sentence from the traditional sutra. Instead, his "articles" become the new "scriptures". In these "scriptures", Li reveals, such as his Frankfurt Lectures, a "secret" only to enhance his own status: "I talked about enlightenment in the past, and revealed a heavenly secret never touched before, it is "xiu (exercises) on yourself, gong relies on the Master. For thousands of years the understanding had been xiulian is a self-exercise, self-improvement, actually, you exercised toward nowhere (or nothing) if there was no Master to control you, to solve the problems" (Frankfurt C, 4; translation is ours).

The Master thus controls the source of "Gong" (energy) with which the disciples would achieve Completion of Cultivation, forcing them into total dependency. However, since the disciples depend on the Master to "transform" "De" into "Gong", they have an inherent interest to know their progress (in case they could not meditate at that top of the gongzhu or lost the reference point). Therefore, the disciples often ask, when that day would come (Switzerland C, 12)? And a typical answer from Li is:

You will later know after Completion of Cultivation. I originally intended to tell everyone this situation of mine. From current situation, this matter is more and more impossible. Why it is impossible? Because the future will not allow people know my existence, so I do not want to leave my situations (to you). As for you, once you reach Completion of Cultivation, you will know. At that time, you use all the language, but cannot describe how great your Master is! (Applause) From my subjective view, at the earlier stage I was very reluctant to let you know your level (Switzerland C, 26).

And

Thus, from where I stand, the understanding of life, positive and negative life, is different from yours. This you do not [will not] understand (ibid.,, 56).

The separation between the Master and disciples is an eternal divide in knowledge and status. For the Master is the savior and the omniscient being, the disciples are at best to become mere Buddhas or a god of lesser significance . Based upon this doctrine, the Master also controls the progress of the disciples, and this serves a very different purpose as we discuss the rapid mobilization later.

 While the Master has the sole control of the doctrines, he also takes full responsibility in claiming any credits. Li does not refrain from telling us:

Recently an expression has been circulating. That is, when practitioners spread Dafa, thereby helping some people with predestined relationships to obtain the Fa and begin their cultivation practice, these practitioners claim that they have saved people. … Actually, it is the Fa that saves people, and only Master can do such a thing. … Be careful: Once such wild statements (of saving people) are made - intentionally or not - even a Buddha will be shocked" (JJYZ E, 31).

Simply put, Li is the one who can save and has saved. No other beings inside the sect should claim any credit, including credits for promoting and reintroducing the Fa (Hongfa).

In the master-disciples relationship, the most important character is total dependency. Falun Gong shares this characteristic with other cults as described by Singer (1996, 9): no matter how hard a disciple practices, there is no hope to reach Completion of Cultivation, which demands an increase in Gongzhu (which Li mistook as the equivalent to "attainment" in Buddhism, see Fajie C, 8), without the Master. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master. The master gives you the gong that develops your cultivation energy" (ZFL E, 30). No matter how hard a disciples wishes, his or her body cannot transform this high form of life ("Gong") composed with "high-energy" materials. This can only be performed by Li, who transforms the "De" into "Gong", and spirally upward in the form of gongzhu (ZFL C, 14). In return, Li demands absolute obedience: "…I am, however, your master, I am ferrying you to such that Paradise, what I have given you cannot be paid back to me forever in your life" (Switzerland C, 8).

 In meditation, the height of the gongzhu is the height of the cultivator's meditated image (ibid., 15). However, the gongzhu could not be high enough for disciples to reach heaven. Li adds: "A man wishing to ascend to heaven, the gods of heaven would never allow! Without the Master teaching, without the Master's control, however great your ability is, you can never return upstairs [to heavens]. Once you are born to the earth, without the true type Master saving man, then, there will never be a chance to return (up to the heaven)." Further, other false religions would not help either. Even Jesus, Li claims, having the most merciful intention, had to pay with his own flesh (Switzerland C, 23-4), failing to ascend in a more perfect way. As for Li himself, he has no such a burden: "Even Jesus, the Buddha, they were enlightened only to the slight scope. I am not in this universe, so I can solve problems at different levels, different cosmos and different life forms. And saving people (on this earth) is not my real intention, it is only one of the live forms I save" (ibid.,, 27).

The status of the Master is irrevocably unique and non-comparable. The reason is that he does not have to, or never does go through the same process of cultivation. More than the helper in the sense of a trainer, the Master is not the cultivator who has gone through the same steps . Li makes this clear to the audience in Geneva: "I am not here to cultivate. This every of you must distinguish. I have not a crisis (Fanan) of my own" (Switzerland C, 12), referring to the rising opposition to his doctrines. In the same breath, Li makes a puzzling remark about his role: "The troubles you encounter, you must treat them as xiulian (cultivation opportunities), because they are certainly xiulian . If the troubles find me, it is the disruption of Fa, a destruction of Fa. Why they should be treated like this?" Li gives a cosmological explanation: "The universe preexists, the thing I am doing is for the purpose of the right Fa, all lives in the universe deviate from the Fa, therefore, it (Fa) must be the righted." It follows by a thunderous declaration: "The one sentence I often tell you is: this happens once in ten thousand years, and had never happened since the opening of the heaven and the creation of the earth - to pass the Fa of the whole universe, the Fa that past gods never knew" (ibid., 22-3).

Though we may have detected several logical inconsistencies in the previous remarks (such as the origin of xuilian, and the timing of the Fa) by Li, despite his distain of good taste in language, we still may conclude that by the end of 1998, Li began struggling with his own role in Falun Gong. Facing outside criticism, Li had to mobilize his disciples to defend his Law. However, this process gave the local leaders much more power than Li desired through organizing, thus weakening Li's standing among the disciples. At that time, Li re-emphasized the dependency theory of the Master and the indispensability of himself as the savior (Fajie C, 8; where Li mistakenly cited Tibetan Buddhism to support his claim of such ownership of the "Gong"). He gives himself a upgrading or promotion that was not seen in the original text Zhuan Falun: that he never cultivates [in this life](Switzerland C, 22). This follows the removal of his cultivation "stories" reaching perfection at the age of 8, and being visited upon by Master Zhen Daozi (True Daoist) in 1974 and by great Buddhists in 1978. This biography was included in the first edition of Falun Gong, published in 1993. We still find traces of this statement in Zhuan Falun E (103), "I have practiced cultivation for so many years." The context indicates that he means "practice" takes place in this current reincarnation cycle of life (This is more clearly stated in the Chinese text).

Another venue to show that Li controls the doctrines of Falun Gong at all times is the ownership of the Falun Gong and the innumerous Falun. As Li claims, Falun Gong is his own exclusively (JJYZ E, 31, "Dafa belongs to me, Li Hongzhi") which is equated with the universe or beyond (ibid.,, 21, 42. Cf. ibid.,, 34, when "Protecting Dafa with your own conduct is forever the responsibility of Dafa disciples, because Dafa belongs to all sentient beings of the universe, and this includes you"). In short, this is a profile for a self-appointed savior.

We provide this analysis to demonstrate the existence of the "self-appointed savior" in Falun Gong. We realize that this is a control mechanism. By using the disciples' attachment (执著zhizhuo) to the timed "completion," Li manipulates their anxieties, creates dependency, and degrades human dignity, thus violates the personal integrity.

The Role of the disciples: Defending Fa and Completion of Cultivation

It is necessary to have an authoritarian structure to qualify as a cult (Singer 1996, 7-9). The dependency of the disciples proves such an existence. A "master" uttering the messages described above without disciples is only disillusioned. It requires a group of believers to fit into such a structure to form a cult. And the progression quickens and deepens in the past four years. Until late 1995, there are no specific roles (except obedience) assigned to disciples other than "striving for a higher level (jingjin)." At that time, public criticism mounted from the science community, led by Prof. He Zuoxiu, a physicist and academician of Academy of Science of China, as the negative effects accumulated after three years of massive promotion. This criticism was later joined by a major intellectual's newspaper Guangming Daily of Beijing (June 17, 1996). As late as in the December 8, 1995 "scripture", Li claimed that to become disciples, there should be no rituals, "A genuine practitioner will gain things naturally without pursuing them. All the "Gong" and the Fa lie in the books, and one will naturally obtain them by reading Dafa," (JJYZ E, 17) where each word has a Falun behind it (Frankfurt C, 3). However, a few days later, on December 21, Li gave two stern warnings in "For Whom do You Cultivate?" and "Awakening." It is worth quoting at length since it laid down the subsequent political activities of the disciples as "anticipated" by the Master:

When some people resort to the media to criticize Qigong, some practitioners waver in determining and give up their practices; it is as though those who take advantage of the media are wiser than the Buddha Fa, and that some practitioners practice cultivation for others. There are also people who become scared in the face of pressure and give up their cultivation. Can these kinds of people achieve the Right Fruit? At the crucial moment, won't they even betray Buddha? Isn't fear an attachment? …

Li continued to lament his dissatisfaction and cast fears among his disciples, predicting a purge from within, a message well taken by the disciples:

Cultivation practice is like great waves washing away the sand: what remains is gold. As a matter of fact, from ancient times to the present, human society has had a principle called inter-generation and inter-inhibition.

He also expressed a pessimistic view of the universe in general, casting the equilibrium of the good and the bad at a zero-sum. Echoing his Singapore Lectures, Li claimed that if there were no opposition to any thing proposed, itself must be an evil proposal (Singapore, 4):

So where there is good, there is bad; where there is right, there is evil; where there is compassion, there is wickedness; where there are humans, there are ghosts; where there are Buddhas, there are demons. It is even more present in human society. Where there is positive, there is negative; where there is advocacy, there is opposition;

Then, he gave a stretch from the metaphysical to the practical, equating non-believers as evil:

Where there are those who believe, there are those who disbelieve; where there are good people, three are bad ones; where there are selfless people, there are selfish ones; and where there are people who can make sacrifices for others, there are people who will stop at nothing to benefit themselves. This was a principle in the past. Therefore, if an individual, a group, or even a nation wants to accomplish something good, there will be an equal amount of negative resistance. …

After giving the disciples a metaphysical shakeup of his perceived reality, he approached their fears with a differentiation of Falun Gong and others:

Speaking from another perspective, cultivation practice is supernormal . No matter who a person is, isn't his criticism of Qigong from an everyday person's view? Does he have any right to deny the Buddha Fa and cultivation? Can any of mankind's organization rise above Gods and Buddhas? Do those who criticize Qigong have the capacity to command Buddhas? Will Buddhas be bad simply because he says so? … Human beings are the sinners… Moreover, they have accrued great amounts of karma for themselves, and soon a great catastrophe will await them.

Li continued suggestively:

Would there still be any need to punish them? … Regardless of whether it is a person or a social force that tells you not to practice cultivation anymore, you then give up your cultivation. Do you practice cultivation for them? Will they give you the Right Fruit? Isn't your inclination toward them a blind faith? This, in fact is the real ignorance. Besides, ours is not a Qigong practice, but the Buddha Fa cultivation practice. Isn't any pressure a test to see whether your faith in the Buddha Fa is fundamentally strong? If you still are not fundamentally resolute in the Fa, everything else is out of question (ibid.,, 18-20, emphasis added; also cf. footnote 48).

As if the above was not explicit, Li shocked the disciples again on May 27, 1996 with Awakening:

The time for genuine Dafa cultivation is limited. … Yet some practitioners do not treasure their time [in comparing the inconsistency of the texts]. … Every time I taught the Fa I presented it from a different angle and delivered my speech according to the students' ability to comprehend. … Actually, everything that I have done was arranged innumerous years ago…. (JJYZ E, 31, emphasis added).

If the above two messages were covert instructions and verbal threat to the followers, on August 28, 1996, Li made it more explicit to the disciples after condemning, two days earlier, the "Demon-Nature" of the world, giving the specific target of an intellectual newspaper that criticized Falun Gong practices by disputing its health claims (JJYZ E, 39):

At present, a large number of practitioners have achieved or are about to achieve the completion of cultivation [perfection]. What a solemn event it is for a human being to complete cultivation! … That being the case, strict requirements must be imposed on every cultivator in the course of his cultivation practice. In addition, upgrading to each higher level should be based on the strict observance of the criteria.

Then, Li provided a linkage between an "upgrade" and their political activities as a touchstone of their truthfulness:

[Now, everyone is singing in Dafa's praise, so it is easy to sing in Dafa's praise for the disciples]. We have changed the situation in human society and reversed the general climate: Let's see who still says that Dafa is good and who changes his mind. This way, hasn't everything suddenly become crystal clear? From the incident with the Guangming Daily until now, every Dafa disciple has played a role: some are determined in their genuine cultivation; for the reputation of Dafa, some wrote without reservation to the authorities; some spoke out against the injustice done by the irresponsible report.

However, there were those who, because of their pre-existing conception of the terminology Li pilfered, still considered "cultivation" as a passive idling meditation:

But there were also some who, amidst the difficult situation, did not cultivate their inner selves, but engaged in divisive activities that further complicated the current situation. Some even stopped their cultivation, fearing that their personal reputations and interests would be harmed. Still others circulated rumors without any concern for the stability of Dafa, exacerbating factors that undermine the Fa. …

As he does elsewhere, Li aims the harshest barb at the local leaders, accusing them for either bending over in the wind, or insensitive to political and social changes unfavorable to Falun Gong and failing to resist such changes:

Some [regional leaders] analyzed the situation of Dafa with the unhealthy habit of observing social trends that developed over years of political struggle….[T]hey concluded that some sort of social trends were unfolding and they intentionally communicated this to the practitioners. Despite there being various reasons for this, could there be a more serious disruption of the Fa than this? Even worse, some stirred up troubles by creating rumors with their demon-nature… Isn't what has happened a test for Dafa disciples' xinxing? What is cultivation? … Without giving up some of the attachments, one might even dare betray Buddha - could this be a minor problem? …

The defending of Dafa was not as simple as thought, Li reminded his disciples, and there might be a real price to pay. That price might include disciple's life for the "life" of Dafa:

Every human attachment must be given up, no matter what it is. Some disciples said: "What's there to fear? My body will still be sitting there, even with my head off." In comparison, it only takes but one look to gauge one's cultivation. We just want to make those disciples who are not diligent in cultivation practice see their own shortcomings, make those who are stumbling along surface, expose those who undermine the Fa in disguised form, and let those genuine disciples reach the Completion of Cultivation (JJYZ C, 41-42, emphasis added).

Since then, disciples are required not only to promote the Fa in public space through "collective exercise," they are entrusted to "hufa" (defending the Laws) whenever it is "attacked." They are constantly reminded that these attacks are once-in-a-life-time opportunity to be tested, and a leap toward Completion of Cultivation. On July 23, 1999, the Falun Dafa Bulletin Board issued an order to arms:

…Every disciples is a part of Dafa, valuing Dafa is to value our own life. …

"[D]isciples all over the country can now self-organize to break through layers upon layers of hardship, and act quickly, actively seek explanations with relevant leadership, to the central government, to all provincial and municipal governments, to explain Falun Gong cultivation practice to them, to demand release of al detained Falun Gong Students, and demand a declaration of innocence for Falun Gong, to return our normal practice environment. We should demand central government and the State to seriously punish those initiators and participants engaged in creating the persecution of Falun Gong, so as to benefit the prosperity of the nation and stability of the society.

"We are good people, we are the best of the best. Anything criminal to be a good person? Why should we suffer this persecution, this suppression? This is not allowed by the Heavenly Law. …

When the protest to the authority is strong, Li's warnings are always sterner to the "leaders" than those to the ordinary disciples. At the earlier history of Falun Gong, he warned them to be satisfied with all the work without recognition and should not take up Dafa as a "profession" (JJYZ C, 21). Later, he reserved the harshest warning to those thinking of playing "master" for even "worse consequences" (ibid.,, 13; Fajie C, [1995] 18). Even in Geneva, he did not forget to redeliver this warning, obviously fearing a collapse of his personal authority:

By the way, I add one sentence in the most serious manner , I have some disciples following me, and everywhere there are [regional] leaders, station chiefs or other responsible leaders, you should understand this: everything you meet is a test, but you cannot represent the Master…If you say you created troubles for me, then it is a destruction pointing to this Fa" (Switzerland C, 24).

The above description outlines the increasingly imposing duty a disciple must burden oneself. And Li's behaviors clearly fit the authoritarian mind control measures in Falun Gong, and how jealously he guards against any possible intrusion on his personal authority. As Li predicted in 1995, the crisis he created was one way to eliminate those "unfaithful" to regain the faithful (Fajie C, 18). Obviously, he executed this plan after himself being removed from the base in China. For the disciples, the duty to "promotion of the Fa" is added with "defending the Fa" as justified in Li's zero-sum metaphysical (to him, material) world.

We provide this description to outline the predicaments of the disciples. Because they are attracted to, or attached to the "completion," their choices are limited, with the fear of demonic interference, to the continuous "upgrading" or degrading. Thus framed, they pay a price of total submission to the authoritarian structure of Falun Gong. The founder on the other hand is clearly aware of what he has been doing, progressively tightening the rope. It starts with simple qigong exercises, then cultivation of the "mind", then promotion of the Fa, and defending the Fa. Li is keenly aware of the danger of internal usurpation, probably learned the lessons well by observing the political society. He preemptively removed such a possibility by integrating his personality into the doctrines, thus the organization that follows. For the disciples, they are free to choose from two options within the framework Li provides: to upgrade to the Falun Paradise or to degrade to lower than this "garbage station". As it is made clear in Li's "The Knowing Heart," a verse published on May 22, 2000, it is the equivalent of choosing between life and death. To choose the perceived "life", disciples are dictated to the total dependency and abandonment of individuality. The second choice, according to Li, is for those who abandon the Fa. We believe that imposing such a dogma on the disciples degrades the human dignity and thus violates the inherent personal integrity. We next discuss why these doctrines anticipate the behaviors of the disciples.

Notes:

32. The original Chinese text may indicate both present and future tense.

33. At the critical moment of Hufa in June 1999, Li began to call those staging protests as "gods."

34. In the first version of ZFL C, the opposite was stated: Li went through the cultivation process since the age of 8, and continued till mid 80s.

35. Circular logic is part of Li's style of speaking and writing. That is perhaps one of the motivations that he demanded disciples to destroy recordings of his lectures.

36. Li backed up his supernormal claim in ZFL E, 75.

37. In one of Li's "poems" (it lacks the classical rhythm to be called a poem by literary standards) titled "Assisting the Fa" dated August 28, 1994, Li wrote: disciples should be "Determined to ferry all lives, Assisting the Teacher to move the world; Helping me to Zhuan Falun, Upon completion, to move among the heaven and earth." The significance of these verses was recalled numerous times in the recent confrontation between disciples and the Chinese government.

38. It was clearly a strategy to evade responsibility when, after this issue, the Falun Dafa Bulletin Board under the Falun Dafa Research Institute virtually stopped functioning and let Minghui.ca to be its mouthpiece. Though there are links to each other at the webpage, Minghui was not "volunteer-base site for exchange of information." The official site published the latest (March 25, 2000) bulletin on April 15, 2000, Minghui did it on the issuing day.

39. It is a strange sentence structure to make a serious warning, by-the-way, in any language.

(New Threads, Revised May 31, 2000)