Li Hongzhi

File:LiHongzhiInterview high.jpg

A 1997 Interview of Mr. Li Hongzhi (Mr. Li is on the right, with interviewer on the left).

Li Hongzhi (Chinese: 李洪志; pinyin: Lǐ Hóngzhì) is the founder of Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa), which is a system of "mind-body cultivation" that is related to the Qi Gong tradition and to Buddhism and Taoism.

Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Dafa on May 13, 1992 at the fifth Middle school in Changchun City, China. From 1992 to 1994 he travelled throughout China, giving lectures and teaching the Falun Gong exercises. In a few years, Falun Gong grew in popularity to become one of the most popular forms of Qi Gong in Chinese History.

According to the New York Times, 1998 government estimates pointed toward 70 million practitioners in China. More recent estimates have been lower, and particularly so when the estimates have come from official Chinese government sources. Since July of 1999, the Chinese government has conducted a widespread persecution of the Falun Gong movement.

The date of his birth is disputed. According to the Falun Gong “Li was born into an ordinary intellectual's family in the city of Gongzhuling, Jilin Province, China, on May 13 (the eighth day of the fourth month by China lunar calendar), 1951.” [1]. The Chinese government has recently countered this assertion by claiming that he was actually born on July 7, 1952 and that he “changed his date of birth to make it coincide with the birthday of Sakyamuni".

Interviews with Mr. Li Hongzhi

From April to July, 1999, Li was interviewed by a number of western media. The following are some of the highlights:

• On May 2, 1999, when asked why he left China, Li told the Agence France-Press that:

"My daughter wanted to go to the States. I also wanted her to study more English language. I heard the US education was pretty good."[2]

• On July 25, 1999 Li told Mae M. Cheng from Newsday that:

"I have never gotten upset with human beings," he said. "I have never been to hospitals, never been ill."[3]

• Li had a dialogue with Times reporter on May 10, 1999:

TIME: Are you a human being?

Li: You can think of me as a human being.

TIME:Are you from earth?

Li:I don't wish to talk about myself at a higher level. People wouldn't understand it. I am trying to save those people who can return to a high level and to a high moral level. Modern science does not understand this, so governments can do nothing. The only person in the entire world who knows this is myself alone.

TIME: In your book [Zhuan Falun] you talk about people levitating off the ground but you say that they should not show other people. Why is that?

Li: It is the same principle that Western gods in paradise should not be seen by ordinary mortals because they cannot understand its meaning.

TIME: Have you seen human beings levitate off the ground?

Li: I have known too many.

TIME: Can you describe any that you have known?

Li: David Copperfield. He can levitate and he did it during performances.

TIME: You have said that this type of qigong should not be used to cure illness. Why is that?

Li: Healing illnesses belongs to the lower level of qigong. A person with an illness cannot practice to a higher level. One has to purify one's body in order to have gong. Healing and fitness are for laying a foundation at a lower level of practice. [4]

TIME:Would you use qigong to cure an illness?

Li: I can do all of this, but I won't do it.

TIME: How does Falun Gong differ from other types of qigong?

Li: There are different practices of qigong in China and in other countries, but they are primarily aimed at healing illnesses or keeping fit and maintaining good health. I am teaching a higher level of qigong. It encompasses a greater content. It is like the Tao, which is known in the Western world.

TIME: And this expresses an inner energy?

Li: You probably know that some people have supernormal capabilities. They are unique capabilities that are created during the course of the cultivation practice. In order to reach a higher level, we require people to reach the perfection or completion of cultivation. In Chinese we call this attaining the Tao.

Li Hongzhi's claim of divinity

File:PaintingLord.jpg

A Falun Dafa practitioner's depiction of Li Hongzhi, named "paintingLord"

According to the biography previously included at the back of Zhuan Falun. Li has developed many supernatural powers throughout his life beginning at a young age. Li’s training under his first master, Quan Jue, consisted mainly in cultivating these innate supernatural powers and instilling great moral principles within him. At the age of eight, it is reported that several supernormal powers manifested; he could levitate off the ground and become invisible. Other supernatural abilities acquired were the ability to control others’ movements by thoughts, and teleportation — he could move himself anywhere he wanted by thought alone. In the following decades he continued to receive trainings from various Masters, some of which took place at night in secret locations where no one could witness them. Through these secret trainings it is said that Li obtained great abilities. The supernatural powers he possessed were “unimaginable for ordinary human beings.” Though the biography emphasizes that above all, “He discovered the truth of the universe, many more beautiful things which have existed there for a long time, as well as the origin, development and future of mankind.”

Since the biography, Li Hongzhi has made many comments claiming abilities or powers which some may interpret as god-like or divine. For example, by 1996, Li indicated that his abilities are not only beyond that of common human beings, but even extend beyond this lifetime into previous lives. “The things imparted to me by my several masters in this life are exactly what I intentionally arranged a few lifetimes ago for them to obtain. When the predestined occasion arrived, it had already been arranged that they [would] impart those things back to me so that I could recall my Fa in its entirety.”[5]

Since 1996, Li’s statements about his identity have become more explicit. In March, 2002, Li announced that:

“No one knows who I am. I do not know who I am, either. No being has ever seen me, and no being has ever called me by any name. I have neither form nor name, and I am different from anything that composes any being in the cosmos. To the sentient beings in the cosmos, I have nothing. Perhaps when the cosmos is no more, only I am there. I have nothing. No being knows who I am. Yet without me, the cosmos wouldn't exist. The reason I have come here is to save all sentient beings amidst the Fa-rectification at a time when the colossal firmament of the cosmos is disintegrating.” [6]

On February 15 2003 at the Western U.S. Fa Conference, Li further discussed his situation. He first stated that his situation isn’t something that ordinary human beings can imagine. Then he described his origins: “I came from the inside, and came from the outside; I came from nothing, formed into something, appeared at the pinnacle of the colossal firmament, and then from there I descended step by step to the most surface, the Three Realms [which includes our human dimension]. No being knows who I am.”

Li then made claims about his service to the human race. “In fact, today's human race would have been destroyed a long time ago if it weren't for the Fa-rectification. The standard of the human race's thinking is already at a level lower than hell. It's because of the Fa-rectification that I atoned for the sins of all sentient beings in the Three Realms.” He then went on to claim what he has done for his disciples: “As far as our students are concerned, it was as if I scooped you out of hell back then. (Applause) I have truly borne for you the sins you committed over hundreds and thousands of years. And it doesn't stop at just that. Because of this, I will also save you and turn you into Gods. I have spared no effort for you in this process. Along with this, since you'll become Gods at levels that high, I have to give you the honors of Gods at levels that high and all the blessings that you need to have at levels that high. (Applause) Never, from the beginning of time, has any God dared to do this. Something like this has never happened before.”[7]

According to the teachings of Li Hongzhi, Fa-rectification refers to the process of renewal, harmonization and perfection of the entire cosmos. Li Hongzhi writes that the old cosmos possessed the characteristic of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction, and that the cosmos has now reached its final stage, of destruction. Through Fa-rectification, a process being undertaken by Li himself, this destruction is said to be being prevented, and instead the universe is being restored to its original purity, in the process saving all beings - including humans.

Biography

File:FalunGeneva lecture.gif

Li Hongzhi lecturing on Falun Dafa in United Nations General Assembly Hall, Geneva

According to a Time magazine article, "He worked as a grain clerk in northeast China's Liaoning province. He played trumpet in a troupe run by the forestry police in neighboring Jilin. And then he wrote a very odd book that affected millions" The article goes on to assert that Li claims he "can personally heal disease and that his followers can stop speeding cars using the powers of his teachings... He also says he can fly. "

The Falun Gong web site Clearwisdom.net, introduces the Li Hongzhi as: "Mr. Li Hongzhi introduced the practice of Falun Gong to the general public in China in 1992. He then taught the practice publicly for two years in China, after which the practice continued to grow primarily by word-of-mouth. In keeping with Chinese tradition, Mr. Li is often respectfully referred to as "Master" or "Teacher." He is not accorded special treatment, nor does he accept money or donations from students of Falun Gong. He has worked to ensure that the practice is available to all people, and without any terms or conditions. According to clearwisdom.net, he has been awarded over 400 honors and is a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee."[8]

A biography of Li Hongzhi appeared as an appendix to the Falun Dafa text Zhuan Falun. According to the biography, Li Hongzhi had been taught ways of "cultivation practice" (xiulian) by several Masters of the Dao and the Buddhist schools of thought from a very young age. This biography says that he was trained by Quan Jue, the 10th Heir to the Great Law of the Buddha School, at age four. He was then trained by a Taoist master at age eight. This master left him at age twelve, and he was then trained by a master of the Great Way School with the Taoist alias of True Taoist, who came from the Changbai Mountains.

Awards and Recognition

File:Cong Recg 00.jpg

Certificate of Congressional Recognition.

At the Asian Health Expo in 1992 and 1993 in Beijing, Falun Gong was successively nominated as the "Star Qigong". According to Falun, Li Hongzhi received "The Award for Advancing Boundary Science" and "Qigong Master most Acclaimed by the Masses" at the Oriental Health Expo, Beijing in 1993.

In September 1999, Li was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Atlanta, Georgia by its mayor. Li Hongzhi, in recognition of his work, has received many honours from state as well as congressional bodies in the United States.[9]

Li Hongzhi was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Li was also nominated for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2001 by 28 members of the European Parliament, but failed to make the "short list".

Relations with Chinese authorities

On July 29, 1999, after the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese government issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi. A request for an arrest warrant was also sent by China to Interpol, and his passport was revoked, preventing him from traveling internationally. Interpol apparently rejected the warrant, on the grounds that it would violate Article Three of the organization's constitution, which forbids Interpol from intervening in "matters of a political, religious, military or racial character".

In China, Li's name remains "blacklisted" by the Great Firewall of China, and some Falun Gong practitioners are held in prisons or Laogai (forced labor camps). Under pressure some of them have denounced him as part of their "re-education" process.

Disputes

Birthdate

In 1999, after the persecution against Falun Gong was launched, the Chinese authorities alleged Li fraudulently changed his birth date: Li claims that he was born on May 13, 1951, however, Chinese authorities allege that his actual birthdate was July 7, 1952, and that he changed it so as to be the same as Buddhism's founder Sakyamuni.

In an interview with Time magazine, Li asserts that he merely corrected his birth data which was confused during the Cultural Revolution, and has not drawn particular significance to it, claiming to be "just a very ordinary man".

Wall Street Journal Article

According to a Wall Street Journal report "American Dream Finds Chinese Spiritual Leader," on November 1, 1999, Li was offered a house in New York worth $293,500 in 1998 shortly after immigrating to the US, then was offered another worth $580,000 in New Jersey in 1999. John Sun, a wealthy New York Falun Gong practitioner, asserted in a letter to the editor of Wall Street Journal that he bought the house in Mr. Li’s wife’s name as an attempt to offer it as a gift, but that Mr. and Mrs. Li firmly refused to accept the house.

American studies

Some members of the American anti-cult movement, including Rick Ross, Margaret Singer and Steven Hassan, have claimed that Li Hongzhi meets their definition of a "manipulative cult leader." [10] [11] [12] However, such views have been contested by many anthropologists, sociologists and other researchers. See: Third party views on Falun Gong#Falun Gong and the anti-cult movement.

External links

• Videos of Li Hongzhi's Nine day lecture in Guangzhou, China. (English overlay)
• Book: Practitioners recollection about their Teacher (Li Hongzhi) while He was introducing Falun Gong (free to download)
• 1999 statement by Li Hongzhi
• Interviews with Li Hongzhi, New York Times Magazine, August 8, 1999
• Extensive May 1999 interview with Li Hongzhi several news agencies, in Sydney Australia
• May 1999 interview with Li Hongzhi by Time Magazine Asia
• Who is Li Hongzhi? BBC Interview (RealPlayer video)
• Li Hongzhi interviewed by Time Magazine Asia in August 1999
• The actual teachings of Li Hongzhi, online
• Summary of a 2004 interview with Li Hongzhi with NTDTV, the first since 1999, hosted on a Falun Dafa website
• "Some Thoughts of Mine" by Li Hongzhi, June 1999
• 2001 San Jose Mercury News critical article held at Rick Ross, a "cult watchdog" group

{{subst:#if:Li, Hongzhi|}} [[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:}}

|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default =  births

}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:}}

|| LIVING  = 
| MISSING  = 
| UNKNOWN  = 
| #default = 

}}