Interview with a German Newspaper about Falun Gong Appeals and Cultivation

Practitioners of the Falun Gong movement demonstrate almost daily in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin regarding the persecution of adherents in China. We talked to Marianne Klotzbach, one of the supporters.

Reporter: Are you a Falun Gong practitioner?

Marianne Klotzbach: I am an ordinary citizen who knows what is going on in China. I know that practitioners of this meditation movement are being persecuted in that country. There is no freedom of thought and belief in China. For freedom of thought or belief, one can be sent to a slave labour camp, tortured or murdered. Jiang Zemin, the former President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) initiated the persecution, because he was afraid of the peaceful people who meditated. Can you understand that? Falun Gong is called a cult, sect and worse, as part of a smear campaign.

R: Can you tell me something about the Falun Gong movement?

MK: Falun Gong is a mediation movement. You may compare it to Yoga or Tai Chi. There are five exercises that improve well-being and help one to relax. This includes meditation and standing exercises, which help one to draw on cosmic energy. Anyone can call what I have said whatever one wishes. I used to practise other methods, including qigong, the Five Tibetans and Tai Chi; I found that this practice has tremendous physical and mental effects on practitioners. Because of its popularity in China and the exercises were practised by many people in the parks, the Chinese Ministry of Health surveyed it and found that at that time this practice was the most beneficial qigong practice in China. Gong is actually called cultivation energy. It affects positively the cultivation of one’s body. One also lives by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. The exercises are useless if one does not cultivate one’s heart at the same time.

R:Your friend is mediating at the moment. What does she hope to achieve?

MK: We are here outside the Chinese Embassy to show the embassy staff that this meditation is something beautiful. We also want them to know that there are people in Germany who are aware of the persecution.

R:How do the embassy staff react to you?

MK: We know that they were against us at the beginning, especially as they are the Chinese regime’s representatives. But, in time, as we have already demonstrated five years outside the Embassy, they got to know us better. But, we have not had any direct reaction from those working at the embassy.

Jungle World is the weekly paper for the Left movement. See issue 2, dated March 25th 2005.

Originally published in German at http://de.clearharmony.net/articles/200505/24192.html