Catskill, New York: The Daily Mail: Eastern meditation meets western therapy in Columbia-Greene class

By Phil Randell

Sunday, January 19, 2003

From Hudson Valley Newspapers

A group of 23 Columbia-Greene Community College students learned five gentle exercises on Wednesday from a Chinese cultivation practice called Falun Gong.

Professor Jacquie Mitchell of the college's massage therapy program invited Yu Chen, a Falun Gong practitioner from Albany, to lead a session of the program's special topic class.

Chen explained that "cultivation" in Falun Gong is studying to improve the heart and mind [through following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance]. The practice includes four standing exercises and a sitting meditation to purify the body. Falun Gong practitioners have reported significant improvements in health.

Chen said she was permanently cured of sleeplessness and several other ailments. She also has friends who have recovered from life-threatening illnesses by persisting with the exercises.

Chen explained that practitioners are from every walk of life. She has a master's degree in computer science and works as a programmer for the Wadsworth Center in Albany, a New York State Department of Health laboratory.

"It's good for the students to be exposed to a variety of modalities," said Mitchell.

The movements of the standing exercises were slow and rounded. The fifth was a tranquil sitting meditation that included several hand movements. When practiced fully, the first four take an hour and final can last another hour.

"It's a completely flexible system," said Chen. She explained that practitioners do not always have time within their busy schedules to spend two hours a day with the exercises. "If you only have five minutes, you exercise for five minutes."

Students learned the movements quickly. Most reported "feeling good" and energized afterwards.

The tone of Chen's presentation became solemn when she detailed the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Chen, who emigrated from the China's mainland in 1996, said deaths by torture of 550 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed, and at least 200,000 practitioners have been arrested and sent to forced-labor camps for refusing to renounce the practice.

Chen's statements are supported by reports from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, and the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C.

The Chinese president outlawed Falun Gong in July 1999 when a Chinese central government survey indicated that between 70 and 100 million Chinese citizens were practicing Falun Gong. There were only 60 million people enrolled in the communist party at the time.

Chen said that the Chinese president became frightened because of how quickly the practice had spread. Falun Gong was first introduced to the public by Li Hongzhi in 1992. He started teaching the practice, [...], by giving a lecture to 200 people.

When Chen was asked why the media has difficulty obtaining the information about the persecution, she said "they have to get permission from the authorities to write about something. They could be in big trouble if they don't."

A March 2000 Amnesty International report confirms that Chen said. When China-based reporters tried to write about the persecution, "journalists from a number of news organizations, including Reuters, the New York Times and the Associated Press, were questioned at length by the police, obliged to sign a 'confession of wrongdoing,' and had their work and residence papers temporarily confiscated."

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