There Are No Heroes Among Cultivators: Sorting Out the Situation, Part I

The incident of Ms. Wang Wenyi shouting at the White House welcome ceremony generated waves of heated debate both in society and among Falun Dafa practitioners. Right now, the overall situation is that the media is starting to widely pay attention to the persecution, but also exposed were issues related to practitioners' understandings of cultivation that have been overlooked for a long time, and things that haven't been discarded. Due to the urgency of the progress of Fa rectification, every opportunity is fleeting; therefore I would like to urgently share my understanding relevant to this incident with fellow practitioners.

First, let me start with the general society. After this incident suddenly happened, the Western media immediately focused on it, but the first batch of news reports were only limited to the surface actions people were able to see on site. They completely ignored the large background that motivated this individual action: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s brutal persecution of Falun Gong over the past seven years; that the Falun Gong issue has been the biggest human rights problem in China for the past seven years; the crimes committed during the CCP's long-term, systematic and well-coordinated harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners and the cremation of their bodies to destroy evidence that was exposed more than one month ago; as well as the urgent and cruel fact that the CCP is speeding up the destruction of human and physical evidence related to the organ harvesting before May 1st, 2006.

After the incident, many people saw the visible surface actions of Wang Wenyi reflected in the Western media's live broadcasts. Therefore, at the time, many Westerners thought from direct-viewing that it was a negative act, and was not in accordance with Falun Gong practitioners' image. Many Falun Gong practitioners took the opportunity to further expose the persecution. They emphasised that although Ms. Wang's individual actions may not have appeared rational and appropriate, we should not overlook the big picture behind her act--the CCP's seven-year persecution and the shocking crime of harvesting organs from living practitioners. As numerous overseas practitioners jointly clarified the truth about the persecution, within one or two days, many positive voices appeared in Western society, including the Washington Post. More and more people are beginning to understand, support and think about this persecution.

This sudden incident has become and will remain a news focus of major Western media before it will be brought to a conclusion. May 3rd, the day when Wang Wenyi is scheduled to appear in court, is World Press Freedom Day. We have reason to believe that as long as Falun Dafa practitioners seize the opportunity to clarify the truth about the persecution to various strata of society, Western media will only give increased positive attention to this incident.

In fact, considering the matter in and of itself objectively from ordinary society's perspective, Wang Wenyi's behaviour did not constitute any threat or intimidation toward other reporters next to her, President Bush, or Hu Jintao. Who can provide evidence that President Bush and Hu clearly heard and understood her words right when she said them? Therefore, no serious charges should apply, for they would not be justified.

Looking at the live TV broadcast, although Wang Wenyi was very emotional when shouting, during the period of more than two minutes, she was only bare-handedly holding up a banner while standing there, and continuously shouting, and it's obvious that she did not have any other action in mind. People could all see that this middle-aged woman had a White House press pass, and it was only inappropriate for her to shout at that time and location; therefore, the reporters standing beside her looked at her very calmly, or turned their cameras toward her to capture the scene. No one among the crowd of reporters beside her felt threatened, and even President Bush, standing on the platform, after looking in the direction where the shouting came from, quickly and calmly said to Hu Jintao in a low voice, "You're OK," a signal for Hu Jintao to continue his speech. Although a man standing beside Wang Wenyi who appeared to be a journalist tried to cover her mouth with his hand, he stopped half-way, and he didn't look nervous, either. One Western reporter said afterwards that Wang Wenyi's mistake was that her shouting was too loud; if she'd said it in a low voice, it would have been perfectly fine, even for that occasion.

One after another media report has come out following this incident. Aside from superficial reports made right after the incident, the later reports have been very positive; they have depth as well as unique perspectives. However, the situation is still not optimistic. As of now, Western media reports have been limited to talking about Falun Gong and the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, and the US administration and most major media are still avoiding the urgent and brutal fact that the CCP is systematically harvesting human organs from living people and hastening the destruction of physical and live evidence before May 1st--a crime that cannot and should not be accepted by people in any country. In order to break through this barrier set up by the old forces, the cultivation requirement for Falun Dafa practitioners is in fact quite high. We absolutely should not take anything for granted or overlook any details; much less should we ignore cultivation of our hearts and make efforts only from the level of doing things, instead of improving on Fa principles.