Waco practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement fear their former teacher is facing torture at the hands of a hostile Chinese government.
Falun Gong is a Chinese practice that involves a series of meditations and motions that resemble yoga and tai chi. Adherents say the exercises help them achieve the principles of "truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance."
The practice, also known as Falun Dafa, was publicly introduced in China in 1992. Popularity of the movement spread quickly, leading Communist leaders in China to outlaw the practice in 1999. The government has reportedly used jails, labor camps, mental hospitals and even death to try to stop the practice.
Local practitioners insist Falun Gong is not a religion. But D.E. Mungello, a history professor at Baylor University who specializes in religions in China, said the government there has tried to stop Falun Gong because it sees it as a religious sect.
"The problem is that there's a tension between following one's god and following the state," Mungello said. "The Chinese want to be sure that they get the primary loyalty, and they're willing to allow religious worship, but only if it doesn't interfere with state practices."
Mary Jo Ard, a Waco schoolteacher and Falun Gong practitioner, worries for the safety of former Baylor graduate student Yan Luo. Ard has heard that Luo, the first to lead Falun Gong in Waco, has been arrested for practicing in her hometown of Beijing.
Luo, whom friends estimate is in her late 20s, began sharing the practice here two years ago after moving from Boston to study information systems at Baylor. Despite her own discomfort with the English language, she gave 40-minute presentations on the movement at local churches, libraries and community centers.
She secured space at the Bledsoe-Miller Recreation Center and publicized group sessions through newspaper announcements and letters to the editor. Ard guessed that about 10 people began practicing because of her teachings here.
"There are no religious rituals or worship, no political agendas and no fund-raising activities," Luo wrote in a March 2000 letter to the Tribune-Herald . "Those who practice are not followers but people with complete individual freedom and no obligations."
At group exercises, practitioners listen to a tape of founder Li Hongzhi instructing their movements in Chinese. They stand on cushioned mats and slowly move their arms slowly above their heads and in front of their bodies.
They hold some positions for 10 minutes, eyes closed, while trying to clear all thoughts from their minds. The exercises are meant to balance energy flow in the body, which Ard says enables practitioners to focus on and enact the teaching's core principles. Those principles can be found in Li's writings, which practitioners read on their own and at group sessions.
Her friends say Luo was so dedicated to the practice that, long after sessions ended, she would answer Falun Gong questions in the Bledsoe-Miller parking lot. She gave rides to anyone who needed them, and when the recreation center's television set was stolen, she shopped around at garage sales for one she could donate to the center.
"She seemed to have a knack for knowing what people needed and giving it to them," said practitioner Pat Knighten, 48. "She just thought of others more than she thought of herself."
She finished Baylor in the spring of 2000, but skipped her own commencement to share World Falun Dafa Day with Waco practitioners. The night before she left Waco to join her husband in Boston, she gave Knighten three boxes filled with Falun Gong cassettes, books, videos and more than 1,000 brochures.
She worked temporary jobs in Boston before leaving to speak at a Falun Gong conference in Hong Kong. Ard said Luo knew she might not make it back to the United States.
She hasn't.
After the Hong Kong conference early this year, she spent two weeks in Thailand. She then went to Laos, where, according to e-mails she regularly sent to her Waco friends, she hoped to secure a visa that would allow her to return to Thailand. Shortly after arriving in Laos in February, she sent her last e-mail to Waco.
Ard said she recently attended a Falun Gong convention in Washington, D.C., where she asked any Bostonian she could find for information about Luo. She eventually learned Luo had been arrested in Laos, near the Chinese border.
Luo was released from a detention center, Ard heard, but continued to practice when she returned home to Beijing. She was then arrested there, Ard was told.
The Waco supporters are unsure what kind of treatment has followed. Ard said that 255 practitioners have been tortured to death in China, more than 1,000 have been sent to mental hospitals, 25,000 sent to labor camps and 50,000 sent to jails. She disputes China's claim that some Falun Gong adherents have committed suicide while in labor camps.
"The Chinese government is pushing the notion that they're committing suicide, which is against the teaching," she said. "It's very clearly stated that there's nothing more important than your life and you hold onto your life for anything."
Despite the troubles that Luo could be facing, her message lives on for the handful of Waco residents who continue to practice. They gather each Wednesday and Saturday at Bledsoe-Miller for sessions that last about two hours.
Ard said the balancing of energies in her body has cleared up her allergy problems to the point that she no longer needs daily shots. She said her focus on the guiding principles has, for instance, made her less likely to gossip about others.
Active Waco participants are trying to localize a national effort to bring attention to the crackdown in China, particularly in light of the news that Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics. They're also trying to rally support for a congressional resolution that calls on the Chinese government to cease the persecution.
"Any time we have an opportunity to do something, we will," Knighten said.
That includes seeking information at every turn about their former teacher. And they wonder, Ard said, if they will ever see Luo again.
"I hope like everything that we do."