(Clearwisdom.net) Because the media played up the massive appeal on April 25, 1999, at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, many people developed a misunderstanding about Falun Gong, thinking of it as being "highly disciplined and strictly organized." This misunderstanding came about as a result of: (a) ten thousand people coming from different regions to Zhongnanhai overnight, (b) the huge numbers of people standing on the street all day without making much noise, (c) how quickly all these people left, leaving no garbage on the streets, when they heard the news of the release of the arrested practitioners.
People should think about it without prejudice and ask themselves, "How could someone train such a large group of people of different ages, occupations, and educational backgrounds and who live in different regions in the country?" Secondly, all Chinese people know what might be the consequences of gathering a large number of people around Zhongnanhai, especially after the massacre on the 4th of June at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What kind of person is capable of putting ten thousand people on the streets and organizing them to stand near Zhongnanhai for a day? A big reward might attract several "brave" men, but there would never be mothers with babies and elderly folks. Also, those who would come for money would never be highly organized. If someone could find ten thousand people who were unhappy with the authorities to appeal at Zhongnanhai, who could exercise enough control to keep them so quiet and have them not display their slogans and speak out in anger?
In fact, the "highly disciplined and strictly organized" Falun Gong practitioners were not organized, nor did they receive any special type of training. Normally, discipline and organization are achieved by punishment and/or rewards. Rewards work because people pursue personal interest, and punishment works because people fear loss of interest. Falun Gong practitioners, though they do not forsake the world, like all Buddhists and Taoists in Chinese history, they do not pursue personal gain, social status, or worldly goods. They have a principle in their heart--Truth-Compassion-Forbearance-- that restrains them, so naturally they could coordinate harmoniously.
For practitioners, politics and power do not have much to do with their practice. If a regime cannot tolerate a group of people who want to be truthful, compassionate, and forbearing, and want to suppress these people, then these practitioners have the responsibility to correct the regime. These practitioners need to tell the government not to continue to make such mistakes because there will be retribution for evil deeds--that is a universal principle. Those Falun Gong practitioners who went to the State Bureau of Letters and Calls in Zhongnanhai on April 25, 1999, believed that the government would listen to them for the good of the country. That simple, benevolent thought organized them and regulated their behavior. If one can try to understand what Falun Gong is, one will find that the appeal on April 25th was a natural result of the practitioners' belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance.
