Is Falun Gong a religion?
Falun Gong is a "cultivation practice" with emphasis on both elevating the mind and enhancing physical health. The concept of "cultivation" is not familiar to many Westerners, though in China, there is a strong sense of the concept of cultivation. The term in Chinese is xiu lian. Xiu means to "repair" or "fix." Lian means to "smelt" or "refine." The Chinese character for "lian" looks similar to and has the same pronunciation as the term "to practice [exercises]." This is only a direct translation of the characters that make up the term.
To get a more complete understanding of the concept of cultivation, we can look to China's history. Around 2,500 years ago, the sage Lao Zi (also spelled "Lao Tsu" and "Lao Tzu") appeared in China. Around the same time, Buddha Shakyamuni (also known as Siddartha Gautama) appeared in India. Lao Zi wrote the book Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), which was how most of society learned about what he called the "Dao" or the "Way." Shakyamuni spread Buddhism in India for 49 years, which was then passed on to China. These two schools then formed the basis for many spiritual practices in China.
Religions, as understood in Eastern cultures, are also considered forms of cultivation. There is the religion of Buddhism, which has temples, monks, etc., and there are several different sects of Buddhism. The cultivation way of the Buddha school does not end there though, as there are many practices from this school that are not considered part of the Buddhist religion. Often these practices are comprised of simply a teacher and students, but there are no religious formalities, places of worship, etc. These are also considered cultivation ways. The same is true for the Dao school. There is the religion of Daoism, but there are also many Daoist practices that are not considered to be religions in the Eastern way of thinking.
So in China, it is not considered necessary to be religious in order to achieve the goal of raising one's spiritual level, but one does need a cultivation practice. Here in the West, since we don't really have the concept of cultivation, anything spiritual or that has to do with transcending the human world has traditionally fallen under the concept of religion. Falun Gong is no exception.
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