Editing Falun Gong (section)

===Dharma-ending period===
Li situates his teaching of Falun Gong amidst the "Dharma-ending period" ({{transliteration|zh|Mo Fa}}, {{lang|zh|末法}}), described in Buddhist scriptures as an age of moral decline when the teachings of Buddhism would need to be rectified.<ref name=Pennyreligion/><ref name=Ownbyfuture/> The current era is described in Falun Gong's teachings as the "{{transliteration|zh|Fa}} rectification" period ({{transliteration|zh|zhengfa}}, which might also be translated as "to correct the dharma"), a time of cosmic transition and renewal.<ref name=Pennyreligion/> The process of {{transliteration|zh|Fa}} rectification is necessitated by the moral decline and degeneration of life in the universe, and in the post-1999 context, the [[persecution of Falun Gong]] by the Chinese government has come to be viewed as a tangible symptom of this moral decay.<ref name=burgdoff/> Through the process of the {{transliteration|zh|Fa}} rectification, life will be reordered according to the moral and spiritual quality of each, with good people being saved and ascending to higher spiritual planes, and bad ones being eliminated or cast down.<ref name="burgdoff">{{Cite journal |last=A Burgdoff |first=Craig |date=2003 |title=How Falun Gong Practice Undermines Li Hongzhi's Totalistic Rhetoric |journal=Nova Religio |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=332–47 |df=dmy-all|doi=10.1525/nr.2003.6.2.332 }}</ref> In this paradigm, Li assumes the role of rectifying the Dharma by disseminating through his moral teachings.<ref name=Pennyreligion/><ref name="Palmer">{{harvp|Palmer|2007}}</ref>

Some scholars, such as Maria Hsia Chang and Susan Palmer, have described Li's rhetoric about the "{{transliteration|zh|Fa}} rectification" and providing salvation "in the final period of the Last Havoc" as [[Apocalypticism|apocalyptic]].<ref name=fieldnotes/><ref name="Chang">{{Cite book |last=Chang |first=Maria Hsia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cP93NP_0kmIC |title=Falun Gong: The End of Days |date=2008-10-01 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-13317-2 |via=[[Google Books]] |url-access=limited |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407102640/https://books.google.com/books?id=cP93NP_0kmIC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|91}} However, [[Benjamin Penny]], a professor of Chinese history at the [[Australian National University]], argues that Li's teachings are better understood in the context of a "Buddhist notion of the cycle of the Dharma or the Buddhist law".<ref name="ABC">{{Cite web|date=2001-04-21|title=Falun Gong: Cult or Culture?|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/falun-gong-cult-or-culture/3481242
|author= Chris Bullock, producer
|access-date=2023-02-10|website=ABC Radio National|language=en-AU|archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134441/https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/falun-gong-cult-or-culture/3481242|url-status=live}}</ref> Richard Gunde wrote that, unlike apocalyptic groups in the [[Western world|West]], Falun Gong does not fixate on death or the end of the world, and instead "has a simple, innocuous ethical message".<ref name="Gunde">Richard Gunde, "Culture and Customs of China", (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).</ref> Li Hongzhi does not discuss a "time of reckoning",<ref name=ABC/> and has rejected predictions of an impending apocalypse in his teachings.<ref>{{harvp|Schechter|2001|p=57}}</ref>