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Li Hongzhi

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Li Hongzhi (Chinese: 李洪志; pinyin: Lǐ Hóngzhì, born c. 1951) is the founder of Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, a system of mind-body cultivation. He currently resides in the United States with his wife and daughter and is a US permanent resident.

According to PureInsight, a Falun Dafa website, Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Dafa on May 13 1992 at the fifth Middle school in Changchun City, China. From 1992 to 1994, Li traveled across China, giving more than 54 lecture series and teaching the Falun Gong exercises. Li continues to give lectures at Falun Gong conferences outside of China today. He is the recipient of numerous awards from state and congressional bodies in the U.S. and Canada, and is claimed to twice have been a Nobel Prize nominee, but it has not been confirmed since Nobel Prize Nominations are not revealed to the public for 50 years.

An official biography of Li was used to introduce him to the public at the beginning of the Falun Gong in 1992. According to this biography he received training from numerous masters for a few decades starting at the age of four, and that through this he obtained supernatural powers and high moral standards. This biography is mostly in the context of his spiritual development and process of founding Falun Gong, rather than his more ordinary life.

An account of Li’s mundane human life was reported by the Chinese government media. According to this account, Li has only a middle school education and he worked as a trumpet player for eight years starting at the age of eighteen. He subsequently worked as a hostel attendant and a clerk at the security department of the Changchun Cereals Company. Since 1999 Li has received many honors from American politicians, but has also been labeled a cult leader by some members of the American "anti-cult movement". Li Hongzhi is wanted by the Chinese government.

Biography

According to a biography of Li that was previously included in the index of his Zhuan Falun (the central text of Falun Gong), Li was born in Guangzhulin, Jilin province, China, on May 13 1951. The biography says that at the age of four Li began studying under his first Buddhist master Quan Jue, who Li calls "the 10th heir to the Great Law of the Buddha School". After this master left Li eight years later, Li continued receiving instructions successively from more than twenty masters from both the Buddha School and the Tao School for a few decades, claiming to have been taught by an "immortal Taoist master". In addition, Li knew how to meditate at the age of eight, could move objects without coming into physical contact with them, and could become invisible by thinking "no one could see me", along with a list of other supernatural abilities. These claims lay the foundation for the teachings of Falun Dafa, taught by Li Hongzhi.

Following the biography’s recounting of intensive, decades-long physical and moral training, it goes on to tell of the reasons Li Hongzhi brought the cultivation system, Falun Dafa, to the public. In it claimed that Li had always questioned, in his mind, the reasons he was alive, and the reasons he had been taught the Gongfu. It reports that he felt that mankind should have been happier, but that people had lost their "true selves"; Li felt that people's spirits have been corrupted and their bodies suffering. The biography emphasised that Li "...saw that Xinxing (mind nature or moral character) is the root cause of human health. Everybody looks forward to a happy life, but they meet with every kind of misfortune because they have lost their true selves." The biography goes onto describe Li's process of refining and perfecting the cultivation system, Falun Dafa, and his imparting it to the public.

Li's mundane human life was reported in the Beijing Review, a Chinese state-owned publication, in early August 1999. This version of the biography is also impossible to verify except through circumstantial evidence, which may have been skewed since the Chinese government banned the movement in 1999. According to this report in the period of 1970-78 Li worked as a trumpet player at a PLA stud farm and Jilin Provincial Forest Armed Police department. Then for the next four years he was an attendant at the hostel of the Jilin Provincial Forest Armed Police department. Starting from 1982 Li worked in the security department of the Changchun Cereals and Oil Company. It is probably in the late 1980s when he took on a great interest in the Chinese art of Qigong. In 1992, Li quit his job and began to propagate the Falun Gong practice and spiritual teachings to the general public in China.

Li Hongzhi taught the practice publicly in China over the course of the following two years. He claimed supernatural abilities and allegedly healed the sick, along with stories of other miraculous deeds that circulated the country. By the mid-1990s Falun Gong had gained a large following in China. According to Falun Gong's websites, the practice continued to grow primarily by word-of-mouth. After this time, Li began giving lectures outside of China, and eventually settled in the US with his wife and daughter in 1997. Li Hongzhi continues to attend Falun Gong conferences in North America, where he often addresses practitioners and lectures on Falun Gong.

In Li Hongzhi's Canadian lectures held on May 23 1999 in Toronto, Li was asked: "I want to recommend to a newspaper that they publish the Master's biography. Is this appropriate?" and he answered:

No, I don’t want to talk about my personal things, and you shouldn’t either. A very simple and brief biography of mine was added to Zhuan Falun because people wanted to get to know me. I have asked them to take it out. What I have taught you is the Fa and everyone should just study this Fa. Don’t be interested in my story. Just study this Fa, and it will enable you to achieve Consummation.

Li Hongzhi's claim of divinity

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 impart those things back to me so that I could recall my Fa in its entirety.”

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.”

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 . 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.”

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.

Awards and recognition

Though sources claim that Li Hongzhi was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, this is disputed as the names of Nobel Prize nominees cannot be revealed until 50 years later. 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 shortlist.

Support, praise and gratitude

As reported by Noah Porter in his Master's thesis FALUN GONG IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY, many Falun Gong practitioners hold deep personal gratitude towards Li Hongzhi for the positive transformation in their lives the practice of Falun Dafa has brought them.

Li Hongzhi has also received numerous awards from North American municipal governments and politicians .

Arrest warrant for Li

On July 29 1999, the Chinese authorities issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi. A request for arrest warrant was also sent to Interpol, and his passport was revoked, preventing him from traveling internationally. Interpol rejected the request on the grounds that it violates article three of the organization's constitution which forbids the Interpol from intervening in "matters of a political, religious, military or racial character".

Disputes

Making money from Falun Gong

Li Hongzhi claims to have not financially benefited from his teachings. According to ClearWisdom.net, "he is not accorded special treatment, nor does he accept money or donations from students of Falun Gong." Li stipulated that promoting Falun Gong could never be done for fame and money, practitioners must not accept any fee, donation or gift in return of their voluntary promotion of the practice. Addressing his Falun Dafa assistants in 1994, Li made it clear that only his Falun Gong Research Society could get involved in managing the money aspect of Falun Gong and that they would always have to get his approval before making any financial decisions. According to Falun Gong practitioners, Li's insistence that the practice be offered free of charge caused a rift with the China Qigong Research Society, the state administrative body under which Falun Dafa was initially introduced, and Li withdrew from the organization. All materials such as lectures, books, and videos are available to be freely downloaded on FalunDafa.org.

However a Wall Street Journal articles reported that “In 1992, he began giving lectures in stadiums across China's northeast, attracting paying crowds of several thousand and grossing as much as $20,000 a week.”

In an interview in Sydney on May 2 1999, Li revealed his financial status in the following statement: "In mainland China I published so many books, but added together, they haven't exceeded twenty thousand Renminbi (equivalent to US $ 2,469). This is what the publishing company gave me. When publishing books in other countries of the world, you know there is a rule, which pays 5 or 6% royalties to the author, so each time I can only get a little bit, a few hundred, or a few thousand dollars."

According to Dr. Yunfeng Lu, Li was able to differentiate his version of Qi Gong from other popular Qi Gong systems popular in the 1980s and 1990's by establishing "his own theory of salvation"--namely "that there is no way to salvation except for the Buddha Law delivered by him." By promoting Falun Gong with his untestable explanations, Li became a “very rich within two years.” Citing the work of Zhang and Qiao, who commissioned their study in Taiwan, Lu alleged that Li accumulated more than one million RMB through conducting qigong classes and selling related materials” in the period from 1993 to 1994. When Li’s Zhuan Falun was published in December, 1994, “more than one million books were sold” bringing in “a large amount of revenue to Li Hongzhi.” Citing the work of Zheng and Quan, Lu adds: “Before it became illegal in 1999, FLG had generated revenues of more than 41 million RMB through the sale of books, pictures, videotapes and VCDs.”

During a lecture in Toronto in 1999, Li addressed the allegations of his generating wealth from spreading Falun Gong. He stated:

"Let me take this opportunity to say a little more because there are some reporters here. Some people wonder, “Is Li Hongzhi a millionaire?” You can regard me as a millionaire, a billionaire, or a trillionaire. That is fine, because what I have is worth more than all the money and wealth in the world.

In fact, if you look at that from another angle, does it matter whether I have money? Even if I had money, I wouldn’t care about it. For example, there are 100 million students studying the Fa, and if I asked all of you now to give me a dollar—think about it—if all of you gave me a dollar, then I would be a hundred-millionaire. Moreover, since all of you are willing to give it to me at any time, you can just regard me as a hundred-millionaire! Some people have gone everywhere to probe me and to investigate how much I have made from selling the books. I can tell all of you that the royalties were a few thousand Yuan each time my books were published by the official publishers in China. The entire total was just over 20 thousand Yuan, which is about a few thousand U.S. dollars. That’s all. Since the publishers are state-owned, they don’t offer royalties like the publishers in other countries. That’s all they pay you. For books published in other places, they pay the author a royalty of 5%, 6%, 7% or at most 8% once the contract is signed. What I got was very little, but I basically live on the royalty money. I’d like to tell you: Don’t be attached to this matter. It’s useless for you to investigate it. Why would I put forth so much effort just to make money? All I would need would be to tell all of you to give me ten dollars, then I would be a billionaire. What a fast and easy way that would be! You all would be happy to give it to me and I could receive it openly. Why would I resort to putting forth so much effort? I think that sometimes people have impure intentions. They take things in a very narrow-minded and stupid way.

According to a Wall Street Journal report "American Dream Finds Chinese Spiritual Leader," on November 1 1999, Li purchased a house in New York for $293,500 in 1998 shortly after migrating to the U.S., then acquired another for $580,000 in New Jersey in 1999. Before he began to spread the practice, Li and his wife each earned less than $500 a year in China.

John Sun, a New York Falun Gong practitioner, stated in a letter published on the Falun Gong web site Clearwisdom.net that he actually bought the house ($580,000 one) in Li's wife's name as an attempt to offer it as a gift, according to him Mr. and Mrs. Li firmly refused to accept the house.

Birth date

The date of his birth is disputed. According to ClearWisdom, a Falun Dafa website, "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." . After the persecution began, the Chinese government said that he was born on July 7 1952 and that he "changed his date of birth to make it coincide with the birthday of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, in an attempt to show that he was the reincarnation of Sakyamuni". . Regarding the issue about his birth date being the same as the birth date of Sakyamuni, Li Hongzhi said the following:

"During the Cultural Revolution, the government misprinted my birth date. I just corrected it. During the Cultural Revolution, there were lots of misprints on identity. A man could become a woman, and a woman could become a man. It's natural that when people want to smear you, they will dig out whatever they can to destroy you. What's the big deal about having the same birthday as Sakyamuni? Many criminals were also born on that date. I have never said that I am Sakyamuni. I am just a very ordinary man."

References

  1. http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/8/27/chronicle.html A Chronicle of Major Events of Falun Dafa
  2. "A Chronicle of Major Events of Falun Dafa (3rd Edition)" from PureInsight
  3. Summary of Proclamations (pdf)
  4. An Article about Nobel Nominations on CNN
  5. Falun Gong's archived biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi
  6. ^ "Li Honzhi is Wanted". China-Embassy.org. June 29 1999. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi, Founder of Falun Xiulian Dafa, President of the Research Society of Falun Buddha Science
  9. BBC: Falun Gong: The enemy within
  10. Clearwisdom.net: Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Falun Gong
  11. ^ Falun Buddha Fa, Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Canada, (Toronto, May 23 1999), English Translation Version
  12. "The Blessings From Dafa", by Li Hongzhi, May 19 2002
  13. "To the European Fa Conference in Stockholm", by Li Hongzhi, June 12 2005
  14. "Foretelling the Fa’s Rectification of the Human World", from "Essentials for Further Advancement II", by Li Hongzhi, on December 9 2001
  15. The Eternal Story
  16. "Nobel Peace Prize deadline looms". CNN. January 30 2001. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. "Nomination Facts". NobelPrize.org.
  18. "Statement by Francis Wurtz MEP, on the 2001 Sakharov Prize selection". Confederal Group of the European United Left. 18 October 2001. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. Porter, Noah (2003). "FALUN GONG IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY" (PDF). University of South Florida.
  20. http://photo.minghui.org/photo/E_proclamations.htm Worldwide Recognition and Awards
  21. Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Falun Gong
  22. "Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun", by Li Hongzhi, on September 18 1994
  23. Interview at 3D Dialogue: Falun Dafa
  24. Yunfeng Lu, Ph.D. "Entrepreneurial Logics and the Evolution of Falun Gong" in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2005) 44(2): 173-185
  25. Zhang, W. Q. and G. Qiao, Falun Gong Chuangshi-ren Li Hongzhi Pingzhuan (A biography of Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong) Taipei: Business Weekly Press, 1999
  26. Zheng, Y. and W. M. Quan Xiejiao Falun Gong Zuixing E-jii (Falun Gong: A heterodox sect) Beijing: Knowledge Press, 2001.
  27. "Letters from Falun Gong practitioners to Wall Street Journal". FalunDafa Clearwisdom.net. November 17 1999. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. Biography of Li Hongzhi
  29. English.people.com: Li Changed his Birthdate
  30. Centre for Studies on New Religions: The way we live now: Questions for Li Hongzhi

External links

Falun Gong websites

Critical

Third party

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