Li Hongzhi published the Teachings of Falun Gong''' in Changchun, China, in 1992, as well as Zhuan Falun in 1995. His teachings cover a wide range of subjects, from spirituality and ethics to science and metaphysics.
A central theme of Falun Gong teachings is cultivation and salvation through assimilation to what Li describes as the fundamental characteristics of the universe: zhēn 眞, shàn 善 and rěn 忍 (which translate approximately as truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance). Assimilation to the supreme nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the foundation of cultivation practice. In this concept, "cultivation" refers to upgrading one's xīnxìng 心性 (mind-nature) by abandoning negative attachments and assimilating oneself to "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance".: "True cultivation, as Li Hongzhi explains, consists of two features—perfor- mance of the exercises and cultivation of “character,” or xinxing [...] the positive side of the cultivation process consists of practitioners aligning their lives with the three moral verities of Falun Gong: truth, compassion, and forbearance. The negative side is the insistence that genuine cultivators abandon their desires, or as it is usually put, 'give up attachments.'" "Practice" refers to the five meditative exercises that are said to energize the body.: "‘practice’ means doing exercises and meditation to energize the body." Cultivation is considered essential, and the exercises are said to supplement the process of improving oneself.: "Another way, then, in which Falun Gong cultivation differs from other qigong cultivation is that it demands the practitioners’ attention in all aspects of their lives and is not limited to the performance of a routine of exercises."
Li also teaches a cosmology involving a process called Fa-rectification, which he says he has undertaken for years to restructure the laws governing the dimensions inhabited by humans. According to Li's doctrine, only the righteous and practitioners of Falun Dafa can pass to the next dimension and be "saved", while the "old world" and immoral humans will either be eradicated or fall into "much lower levels of existence".
The movement's teachings are primarily presented in the books Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun. Falun Gong serves as an introductory book that discusses qigong, introduces the principles above, and provides illustrations and explanations of exercises for meditation. Zhuan Falun is considered the central and most comprehensive exposition of the teachings of Falun Gong.
After leaving China for the United States, Li told his followers that Zhuan Falun would be the central focus of Falun Gong practice. According to David Ownby, Zhuan Falun was distinctive that it gave emphasis to demonic and apocalyptic themes that other qigong texts had "only hinted at". David Palmer likewise noted that in the 1995 version of Zhuan Falun, it had differed from other qigong literature in that it focused on a millenarian structure where it stressed xing xing (moral development) and changren (salvation from a "demonic world" of "ordinary people"). The book contains references to the "end of the Dharma", demonic possessions, and modern science as an extraterrestrial plot.
Li taught that both "religions and traditions of the past" as well as modern science should be avoided, directing adherents instead to devote themselves to Falun Gong teachings. He advised practitioners to make reading Zhuan Falun a daily activity. Practitioners are also advised to avoid or oppose certain lifestyles, beliefs, and concepts, including communism, extraterrestrial influence, conventional medicine, feminism, rock 'n' roll, modern science, homosexuality, and race-mixing, which are presented as being incompatible with the laws of the universe. Falun Gong's conservative and moralistic views on subjects such as sexuality have attracted controversy.
According to Helen S. Farley and James R. Lewis, Li discouraged practitioners from discussing his more esoteric or higher-level teachings with "outsiders", whom Li referred to as "ordinary people".
InfluencesSee also Theoretical background and History of Falun GongBuddhism and Daoism According to Yanfei Sun, a sociologist at China's state-run Zhejiang University, Li's teachings are syncretic, borrowing from existing traditions including Buddhism and Daoism. In particular, Falun Gong borrows heavily from Buddhist cosmology and soteriology but applies Li's idiosyncratic interpretation. Li asserts that the teachings of Buddhism and Daoism are confined to the Milky Way Galaxy, whereas Falun Gong's teachings are of the highest, universe-wide order.
The teachings of Falun Gong make a distinction between fojia, Buddha School, and fojiao, the religion of Buddhism and also the Dao School (daojia) and the religion of Daoism (daojiao). Li Hongzhi states that there are two main systems of Xiu Lian or Cultivation practice: the "Buddha School" and the "Dao School". According to Li, the cultivation ways of the Buddha School focus on the cultivation of Compassion while the Dao School emphasizes the cultivation of Truthfulness. In Falun Gong, Truthfulness and Compassion are apparently understood to be aspects of the cosmos's fundamental nature, Zhen-Shan-Ren. Thus, cultivation practices, whether in the Buddha School or Dao School, are considered a process of assimilation to this cosmic characteristic.Li Hongzhi Zhuan Falun, Third Translation Edition (Updated March, 2000) USA Internet Version retrieved June 14, 2006 Li states that there are many cultivation ways in the Dao and Buddha schools that are unrelated to secular religions, are often handed down from Master to disciple in secret, or "[have] always been practiced quietly, either among the populace or deep in the mountains." Li states that, "These kinds of practices have their uniqueness. They need to choose a good disciple—someone with tremendous virtue who is truly capable of cultivating to an advanced level."
In his book Falun Gong, Li states that Falun Gong is Buddhist qigong that has nothing to do with the religion of Buddhism.Falun Gong, Chapter 6.1, Li Hongzhi, 7th Translation Edition, 2016, accessed February 16, 2018 Li states that the religion of Buddhism "is a system of cultivation that Shakyamuni awakened to in India more than two thousand years ago when he was cultivating."
In Falun Gong, as in Buddhism or Daoism, practitioners are required to gradually let go of negative attachments. According to David Ownby, the requirement in Falun Gong to abandon human attachments is not for achieving selfish ends but "quite the contrary. Practitioners are enjoined to treat others with compassion and benevolence in order to cultivate virtue and work off karma."David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China (2008) Oxford University Press He says that such compassion and benevolence should not be reserved to those with whom one had a prior attachment, nor should the goal be to inspire gratitude or love, but for conformity to the nature of the universe. Li also insists that practitioners do not withdraw from the world and that they maintain interactions with non-practitioners, including "even those who are hostile to practice". The point here, according to Ownby, is that before the practitioner cultivates to such a point that they are dispassionate in their compassion, the stress experienced in the secular environment "constitutes a form of suffering which will enable them to reduce their karma".
Academic Stephen Chan suggests that in providing a metaphysical system that relates the life of man with the greater cosmos, Falun Gong presents a philosophy which in a sense bypasses the communist-atheist ideology of Chinese state. He suggests that this may have led to the decision of a ban made by the Chinese authorities. Chan writes that Falun Gong poses no political threat to the Chinese government, and there is no deliberate political agenda within the Falun doctrine. He concludes that Falun Gong is banned not because of the doctrines but simply because Falun Gong is outside of the communist apparatus.
Chan parallels Falun Gong and Buddhism by saying the two share a central doctrine of goodness and unconditional compassion towards others.Chan, Stephen, "A New Triptych for International Relations in the 21st Century: Beyond Waltz and Beyond Lacan's Antigone, with a Note on the Falun Gong of China", Global Society, 2003, 17:2, 187–208 Chan also provides a point of differentiation between Falun Gong and Buddhism. Penny writes that another one of Li Hongzhi's critiques of Buddhism is that the original form of Buddhism, Sakyamuni's Buddhism, was somehow pure, it has declined over the centuries through the intervention of a degenerate priesthood, thus distorting the Buddhist Dharma. Falun Gong teaches the essential elevation of good as a governing norm, where good creates the society, although in a conservative way.
According to Ownby, the three central pillars of Falun Gong are the "moral qualities cultivators are enjoined to practice in their own lives [are] truth, compassion and forbearance". Li taught that the goal of cultivation is one of spiritual elevation, achieved by "eliminating karma—the built-up sins of past and present lives which often manifest themselves in individuals as illness—and accumulating virtue". Through cultivation, Falun Gong "promised personal harmony with the very substance of the universe". In line with Falun Gong's consistent allusions to Oriental traditions, Li criticized the "self-imposed limits" of modern science and viewed traditional Chinese science as an entirely different, yet equally valid knowledge system. Yet he also borrowed from modern scientific ideas to represent part of the Falun Gong doctrine—notably by making references to atomic theory and nuclear energy.David Ownby, "The Falun Gong in the New World", European Journal of East Asian Studies, September 2003, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p. 306 By introducing scientific elements into his teachings, Li hoped to avoid Falun Gong being characterized as a traditional, superstitious belief system, and to gain a wider following among the educated.Zhao, Yuezhi, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", pp. 209–23 in Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World, ed. Nick Couldry and James Curran, Rowman & Littlefield: 2003. New Zealand scholar Heather Kavan wrote that Falun Gong members have repeated the principles of "truthfulness, compassion, forbearance" to outsiders to evade deeper inquiry. Kavan said that Li instructed his followers to lie to outsiders about Falun Gong.
China scholar Benjamin Penny's 2005 publication The Falun Gong, Buddhism and "Buddhist qigong" says that after the crackdown, the Chinese Buddhist Association was eager to denounce Falun Gong, and other Buddhist groups followed suit in fear of religious persecution.Penny, Benjamin, "The Falun Gong, Buddhism and 'Buddhist qigong'", Asian Studies Review (March 2005) Vol 29, pp. 35–46. He also states that the Buddhist community's response to Falun Gong could also have been due in part to Falun Gong's rapid growth in China. According to Penny, Li says that the features of the Buddha School include the cultivation of Buddhahood and the belief in predestined relationships, which are included in the teachings of Falun Gong.
Maria Chang believes that Li's teaching on the "Dharma-ending period" and his remarks about providing salvation "in the final period of the Last Havoc" are apocalyptic. Penny dissuades from considering Falun Gong as one of "these genuinely apocalyptic groups", and says that Li Hongzhi's teachings ought to be considered in the context of a "much more Buddhist notion of the cycle of the Dharma or the Buddhist law".Radio National, Falun Gong: Cult or Culture?, produced by Chris Bullock, , accessed 2007-09-19.