在佛教中，一般把佛法稱為內(nèi)道，把佛法外的其他思想信仰稱為外道，而把僅以佛教為幌子、竊用佛教名義的外道稱為“附佛外道”或“附法外道”。中國著名佛學家陳星橋先生說，李洪志及其“法輪功”，就是“附佛外道”的典型。
陳星橋，法名常正，法號智淵。曾任哈爾濱市佛教協(xié)會秘書長、湖北巖山佛學院講師，現(xiàn)就職中國佛教協(xié)會《法音》雜志社編輯部主任。近年以來在《法音》、《內(nèi)明》、《文史知識》等報刊上發(fā)表數(shù)十篇論文，揭露和批駁李洪志及其 “法輪功”。
他指出，像“法輪功”這樣打著佛教旗號的偽氣功和偽佛教至今仍迷惑著許多氣功愛好者，不僅他們中的許多人深受其害，而且佛教也蒙受了不白之冤。
陳星橋首先向記者介紹了氣功在中國的起源和發(fā)展。
他說，氣功是中國一種古老的養(yǎng)生修煉術(shù)，分為靜功與動功。氣功過熱，也產(chǎn)生了許多弊端，暴露出許多問題。一方面?zhèn)螝夤κ⑿校恍夤熦潏D名利，為廣收徒眾，聚錢斂財，故弄玄虛，標新立異，隨意夸大本門氣功作用，敗壞了社會風氣，干擾了人們正常的工作和生活秩序。另一方面，一些氣功師本身素質(zhì)不高，學識不夠，德行不佳，操守不嚴，使各種封建迷信盛行，一些反動會道門有機可乘，借氣功之名大傳邪法、邪教，給氣功界、宗教界乃至全社會造成了混亂。正是在這種情況下，李洪志得以“氣功”之名，并打著“宗教”的招牌招搖撞騙。
陳星橋說，在歷史上，氣功是與宗教密切聯(lián)系在一起的，而在現(xiàn)代，它作為一種養(yǎng)生修煉術(shù)從宗教的迷霧中分離出來。“法輪功”就是將大量的宗教性的東西當作氣功四處兜售，既搞亂了氣功界，也搞亂了宗教界，是一種典型的具有民間宗教特點的“附佛外道”。
《轉(zhuǎn)法輪》開篇就說：“前些年有許多氣功師傳功，它們所講的東西都是屬于祛病健身那一層次的。當然不是說別人的功法不好，我只是說，高層次上的東西，它們沒有傳。全國的氣功形勢我也都知道。在國內(nèi)外，真正往高層次上傳功，目前只有我一個人在做。往高層次上傳功，為什么沒有人去做呢？因為它牽扯很大的問題，牽扯的歷史淵源很深，牽扯的面也很廣，涉及的問題也很尖銳。它不是一般人能傳得了的，因為它牽扯到要動許多功派的東西?！崩詈橹舅^的“ 往高層次上傳功”，實際上是在做純宗教性的工作，是要度人，而且是按照他大膽?yīng)殑?chuàng)的“宗教”在社會上去“普度眾生”。這樣一來，“牽扯”的“問題”自然多而且“很尖銳”了。
陳星橋說，正因如此，李洪志極力回避自己在搞“宗教”，不得不打出氣功的招牌。那么他的“氣功”是怎樣的一種氣功呢？李洪志說：“按照修煉的說法，氣要算呢，有三個層次。但真正的修煉（煉氣不算），共有兩大層次：一個是世間法修煉；一個是出世間法修煉。這個世間法、出世間法修煉和廟里的出世間、入世間是兩回事，那是理論上的東西。我們是真正人體修煉的兩大層次的變化，因為在世間法修煉過程當中人的身體都是在不斷地凈化，所以走到世間法最高形式的時候，身體已經(jīng)完全被高能量物質(zhì)代替了。而出世間法修煉，那基本就是佛體修煉了?！痹谶@里，氣功的內(nèi)涵被李洪志無限擴大了，煉氣、健身都在其次，關(guān)鍵在于修煉成佛體。
從此可以看出，“法輪功”根本不是什么氣功，其實李洪志自己對迫不得已打出氣功牌子也心有苦衷。他在《為長春法輪大法輔導員解法》中說：“大家知道，我們在長春初期辦班的時候，我講得也是很高的。但是，總是把氣功掛在嘴上。我們今天呢，因為往高層次上傳功了，就不講這些了。這也是一個逐漸叫人認識的過程。”此后他又在《北京法輪大法輔導員會議》上建議說：“我們一上來就是在高層次上談修煉這個問題，我們將來再不要把它說成是什么氣功、氣功的。”可見，李洪志只不過是在利用氣功來迷惑社會，迷惑政府，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)也迷惑了不少自己的弟子，于是便在內(nèi)部為自己“正名”。
陳星橋強調(diào)說：我們之所以反對“法輪功”這類的“附佛外道”，是因為它在盜用佛教名義、利用佛教的同時，又歪曲、污蔑佛教，使人們誤以為他就是佛教，惡紫奪朱，從而阻礙人們?nèi)フJ識真正的佛法。李洪志的書中處處表現(xiàn)出對佛法理解的粗淺鄙陋，以至于稍有佛學知識的人隨處可以指出常識性的錯誤。
（解放軍報 2001年03月20日 第4版）
Chen Xingqiao: Falun Gong is a typical heretic adhering to Buddhism and pseudo-Qigong
In Buddhism, People in general called Buddhist Dharma as Inside Teachings and apart from that, the other teachings or beliefs as Outside Teachings. Meanwhile, only those heretics, which take Buddhism as their guise or usurp Buddhist terms for teachings were called Outside Teachings adhering to Buddhism or Dharma. Mr. Chen Xingqiao, a famous Chinese Buddhist scholar, said that Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong was a typical heretic adhering to Buddhism.
Mr. Chen, also called Chang Zheng or Zhi Yuan in dharma name, was the secretary-general of Harbin Buddhist Association and lecturer of Lingyanshan Buddhist Academy in Suzhou. He is the editorial chief of Voice of Dharma, the Journal of Buddhist Association of China, and has issued dozen of articles on "Voice of Dharma", "Nei Ming" and "Cultural and Historical Knowledge" in recent years to refute Li Hongzhi and his evil cult Falun Gong.
He pointed out that the pseudo-Qigong or pseudo-Buddhism, which misused the name of Buddhism, like Falun Gong, still confused many Qigong fans. Not only some of them suffered a lot from Falun Gong, but also the right faith of Buddhism was grievously wronged as well.
Mr. Chen firstly gives the reporter introductions on Qigong's origination and development in China.
He said that Qigong was an exercise from ancient times in China to keep practitioners in good health with asceticism. It could be divided into static Qigong and dynamic Qigong. Qigong was overheated in China then, which brought out many problems concerned simultaneously. On one hand, in a flourishing of pseudo-Qigong, some Qigong masters were greedy for fame and money. In order for more followers and money, they purposely made mysteries and did something unconventional to exaggerate the function of his exercise. It corrupted social values and disturbed regular order of people's work and life. On the other hand, some of Qigong masters themselves were not qualified. With little learning and virtue as well as personal integrity, they made all kinds of feudal superstition be in vogue. Some reactionary secret societies took it as opportunity to spread evil teachings or cult. Confusions were brought to Qigong circle and religious circles as well as all societies. In this case, Li Hongzhi could be able to get his way around in the name of Qigong and signboard of religion.
Mr. Chen said that, in history, Qigong maintained close ties with religions while in modern times it was separated from religion as asceticism practice only for keeping in good health. Falun Gong itself took large amount of religious teachings as Qigong exercises for spreading, which made a mess in both Qigong and religious circles; so Falun Gong is a typical heretics adhering to Buddhism with characteristics of folk faith.
In the beginning of "Zhuan Falun", Li said that in several years before, there were many Qigong masters taught their exercises, what they taught only stay at level of getting rid of disease and keeping in good health. Certainly he didn't mean that other people's practice was not good, he just said that they failed to teach things in high levels. He knew the Qigong's conditions in nationwide as well. Inside or outside of China, masters really wanted to teach the practice in high levels, presently only he did it alone. Why were there no people to teach in high level? Because it would be concerning about credential problems, historical originations involved being deep into root, the scale concerned would be very broad as well, there involved sharp problems. It could not be taught by an ordinary figure, because it concerned the turning down in many ideas of other schools of Qigong. So-called passing on Qigong to high level by Li Hongzhi was making religious work actually. He aimed at converting people. He went to society for his converting to all living beings under "the faith" created by him. In this case, many problems would be naturally brought out while some of them would be very incisive.
Chen Xingqiao said that Li Hongzhi tried to evade that he was constructing a religion, so he was forced to hoist a signboard of Qigong. What kind of Qigong did he make? Li Hongzhi said that in accordance with sayings of asceticism, the Qi could be divided into three levels; but in real practices, there were totally two levels: one was the Qi inside the world, the other was the Qi outside the world. The practices of the Qi both inside and outside the world were different from mundane or transmundane Dharmas in Buddhism, which was theory only. The changes in two levels they experienced came from the real human body, as the human body in practice inside the world would be purified step by step, once they arrived at the highest point of practice of Qi inside the world, the human body would be completely replaced by high-energy matters. In regards to practice of Qi outside the world, it would be practice of Buddha's body. In that case, the intentions of Qigong was boundlessly broadened by Li Hongzhi, cultivation for breathing and keeping in good health would be secondary, the premier thing is cultivation for Buddha's body.
In this regards, Falun Gong wasn't exercise of Qigong at all. In fact, Li Hongzhi himself had embarrassment because he had to use the name of Qigong for his teachings. In the book "Explanation for Teacher of Falun Dafa in Changchun", he said, "as you know, when I set up exercise class in Changchun in the beginning, what I said was very high as well, but I had to keep on saying it was Qigong. We would not talk about any more as we passed on the exercises to high level at then. That was a procession for us to be known by people step by step." After that, he suggested at the meeting with Falun Dafa teacher in Beijing that they should talk about the issue of exercise in high level at very beginning, they would never say Qigong or something like that. It is clear that Li Hongzhi just took the name of Qigong to cheat the society and confuse the government. When he saw some followers of his own were confused by his tricks, he himself was hurried to correct it among his organizations.
Mr. Chen emphasized that the reason of why we fighted against the heretics adhering to Buddhism like Falun Gong, is that they misused Buddhist terms to cheat people. When they took the name and made use of Buddhism, they abused and denounced the right faith.It made people wrongly take Li Hongzhi`s sayings as that of Buddhism. The evil cult took the place of the right faith, which had obstructed people knowing the real Buddha Dharma. Li Hongzhi's books unmasked his shallow and superficial knowledge on Buddhism as well. People with a little Buddhist learnings could be able to point out his mistakes on elementary knowledge.
(People's Liberation Army Daily, March 20, 2001)