Falun Dafa group finds freedom in Goshen

Sunny Yang tells of the persecution he and his family suffered in China as a member of Falun Dafa, a spiritual movement that involves meditation, graceful movement, and controlled breathing.

His mother, Gai-Chai Gen, spent two years in a Chinese labor camp for her beliefs. She now lives in Goshen. Yang, who was also imprisoned, said he was finally able to get a passport and make his own escape.

After they left the labor camps, Yang said, he and his mother had no IDs and were closely monitored. If you are on the government's black list, he said, you can't get a passport and can't move around.

"The whole country is looking like a big jail," he said.

Yang and his mother are part of a Falun Dafa group that meets from 9 to 11 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church park in the Village of Goshen. Any member of the public is welcome to join them. Those who know the exercises will show newcomers how to do them. The teachings are available online at FalunDafa.org.

'Incomparable courage'

Millions of adherents of Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, have been persecuted in China since the government's crackdown began in 1999.

The late Mark Palmer, a former U.S. ambassador and vice chair of Freedom House, which promotes human rights around the world, said, "Falun Gong is, in my judgment, the greatest single spiritual movement in Asia today. There is nothing that begins to compare with it in courage and importance."

The Falun Dafa literature states that "millions are wrongly persecuted in China, even now. 100 million people were practicing the exercises when the persecution began in 1999. Millions of Chinese people have since been abducted, imprisoned, tortured, fired from jobs, expelled from school, or forced into homelessness because they practiced Falun Dafa. Over 80,000 cases of torture have been recorded on minghui.org. Thousands have been killed."

Other religious groups in China, including the Uighurs and other Muslims, have met with a similar fate.

China considers Falun Dafa a threat to communist control, even though the group has no history of violence or terrorism, and no hierarchical structure. Its popularity may pose its biggest threat.

Falun Dafa remains "the number one meditation group in China," Yang said.