Article Published in Three Belgian Newspapers: “Thanks to Falun Gong I am a different person!”

Published in ‘Het Nieuwsblad’, ‘De Gentenaar’ and ‘Het Volk’

Chinese exercises bring tranquillity in daily life

“When your boss wrongfully scolds you, it is already quite a skill to remain calm. It’s even stronger if you really are calm inside. And that is something I can achieve since I started practising Falun Gong," says Matthias Slaats, who is a fervent adherent of this Chinese teaching. Falun Gong is mostly known here as the [practice] that has been outlawed in China for a few years now and of which the adherents are being persecuted. But what is it exactly that Falun Gong contains? “It’s a way to improve your moral qualities. Thanks to the exercises the body also becomes healthier and purer."

Matthias Slaats (31), from Gent, and a Chinese expatriate Yu He (31) demonstrate the slow exercises they practise twice a week, accompanied by music. On their face is a concentrated yet blissful expression. The lotus posture might look rather painful to a lot of people. “Of course it hurts a little at the beginning," says Matthias. “But after a while it becomes automatic. And this is typical for Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa. We strive to obtain a higher quality in life and respect a number of moral values."

A better person

In practice this means that adherents of Falun Gong strive for Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, three values that, according to the teachings, are the characteristics of the universe. “Thus we try to think and act less from the perspective of our personal interest," states Slaats. “This makes us better people and improves the quality of our lives and our environment."

Immediately you can ask yourself if you need Falun Gong to be a little bit more tolerant: “Thanks to the teachings you get guidance and support to take care of that," explains Matthias. “This is needed, because in practice it is not always uncomplicated. In the beginning, if you react calmly to conflicts, you get the feeling that you are being trifled with. But in the longer term it pays back and people look at you as a calm, pleasant person and you will automatically get involved in less conflicts," says Yu He.

“Three years ago I came into contact with Falun Gong, since then I have became a different human being. Before that, going out used to be a way of release for me, now I don’t need that anymore," says Matthias.

Then the question still remains what purpose these [exercises] serve. “Falun Gong doesn’t only cultivate the mind, but also the body," tells He Yu. “Thanks to five easy exercises you can feel the energy in your body being set free. When you practise the exercises everything frees up automatically. The goal is not to think about it. You have to clear your mind and then you can do the exercises automatically."

Not a sect

“You can compare it a little bit with yoga, but there is a fundamental difference," says Slaats. “It is not the goal to run away from the real world for a moment. The idea in Falun Gong is exactly that you apply the calmness that you achieve during the exercises in daily life. I work as a project manager and that means I often run into situations of stress. The good thing about Falun Gong is that you can, during those moments, reach the same state that you can reach during the exercises."

“What the teachings of Falun Gong provide is the basis. The rest you do yourself. Everyone will bring these three principles into practice in a different way. Therefore it is all the more strange that the Chinese government regards us as a sect. We have no structure or organisation. Everyone is free to believe or do what he wants. We pay no membership fees. We have neither temples nor rituals."

“Initially Falun Gong got support from the Chinese government. People became healthier through practising Falun Gong and that meant a saving on the healthcare budgets. But when the number of adherents of Falun Gong – estimated to be 100 million - became bigger then that of the communist party, some people got scared. Now there exists a Gestapo-like police that exists solely to persecute practitioners, leading to hundreds of deaths."

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Also Matthias was arrested two years ago when he supported an appeal against the persecution on Tiananmen Square. Last summer, Slaats and some other adherents have filed a complaint against former Chinese state leader Jiang Zemin, accusing him of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. At this moment the complaint is being examined by the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.