Western Practitioner: A Nine-Year Vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy

There are not many practitioners in Ottawa, the nation's capital, and there is much to do, yet through some miracle of coordination and effort we have managed to maintain a vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy for nine years. Over the years many have participated, some whenever they can, and some for years.

Every Wednesday afternoon since 2001, practitioner "M" and I go to the Embassy. Some people call what we do a "protest," but we call it a "vigil." I personally feel that protest is too weak a word, it implies a plea, asking for a change in a policy or action. A vigil, however is an assertive act, being watchful with a strong sense of purpose. We know what the CCP (Chinese communist party) is doing, we want the embassy personnel to know that we are watching, and we want to show all who pass by that we are watching. The word "vigil," as I understand it, also suggests a sacred act.

In 2001, an Ottawa practitioner was so appalled by the reports from China that he decided to take his summer vacation and stay in front of the Embassy around the clock. Practitioners from Ottawa and Montreal came to help and a 24-hour vigil began, which lasted most of the summer. Afterwards, we tried to keep a presence there during peak traffic times, despite how few of us were available to participate.

The Chinese Embassy sits on the south side of the Ottawa River. It is a stone building that used to be a convent, but now the Christian symbols have been almost completely removed and the niches that used to contain beautiful religious statues stand empty. The embassy faces a busy, four-lane street. Our vigil takes place on the other side of the street, facing the Embassy. Behind us is a fenced-in schoolyard.

The perseverance and dignity of the practitioners who stood silently before the Embassy that first summer was impressive. Many practitioners participated, several came from nearby cities to help.

But a 24 hour vigil was not sustainable, so we made a schedule and continued to have a presence there during the day. Several practitioners participate in this, some come occasionally, and some of us have been there for many years. "M" and I look after the Wednesday afternoon shift. It is a good arrangement because if one of us is out of town, the other can still be there. But normally we are both there.

The Embassy set its lawyers to work poring over Ottawa by-laws to try an find a way to get rid of us. We were informed that we couldn't have any free-standing signs, only hand held ones, so we used the school yard fence to hang our banners until the Embassy put pressure on the school board to make us stop. There were meetings and truth clarification efforts, and the result was that we were allowed to use the fence when the school was not open.

The Embassy later found someone to complain about us at City Hall. We did our best to explain the facts to our Councilors. First the complainant tried to make a case that we were a safety hazard because people who wanted to avoid us crossed the street to go to the Embassy before they got to the Embassy. A city councilor questioned him closely. The complainant finally admitted that, basically, his complaint was that our presence was embarrassing, to which the Councilor responded, "As far as I know, no one has ever died of embarrassment." The Councilor was later seen in the hall giving the complainant a stern lecture on the meaning of living in a democracy.

As we send righteous thoughts at the Embassy we see, over time, physical changes in the building and the grounds, which seem to reflect the CCP's fears. First they put two big stone lions up on either side of the front entrance. Then they put up fences, barricades, fences within fences, extra lights, and electronic gates. They replaced the stone walls with much higher walls and got into trouble for dumping their left-over cement into the Ottawa river in the process.

Ottawa is among the coldest capital cities in the world, so standing in front of the Embassy in the winter has its challenges. We try our best to dress for the weather, then add at least one extra layer to compensate for the constant wind off the river. From outdoor sports I have experienced frostbite many times, and hypothermia once, but although we have been very very cold at the Embassy, neither one of us has ever had frostbite or hypothermia. Often I will feel that my flesh is cold, but my bones are warm.

Harassment has taken many forms: verbal, threatening gestures, etc. Sometimes it reveals the paranoia from within the embassy. For example, once as we were exercising, a woman came storming out of the Embassy, yelling at us in English, "You think you're so smart but it won't work at all. You can do that all you like but it won't work at all!" We had no idea what she was talking about at first, then we realized that she likely thought, or had been told, that we were stealing energy from the embassy.

Every week is a new adventure because of the people we encounter. Once a middle aged Chinese couple walked toward us very purposefully, looked briefly at our banners and flyers, and began berating us, mainly in Chinese, with a few words of broken English. Then they went across the street to talk to the people going in and out of the Embassy, gesturing angrily in our direction, speaking loudly and at length to several people. A very tall, strong-looking young man came out and they immediately went up to him. From their gestures it seemed that they were encouraging him to do something about us. He talked to them for a long time, looking often in our direction, while they pointed at us in anger. We sent urgent righteous thoughts, asking for extra strength. Finally the young man ended the conversation and headed toward us, then turned toward his car. Just before he got in his car, when he could no longer be seen from the Embassy or by the couple, he gave us a brief thumbs-up gesture. The couple left without ever going into the Embassy, thinking their mission had been accomplished.

While it may be pleasant and convenient to be a two-person team, it also has its downside. Like other practitioners, we have our tribulations and tests, but over the years we have noticed that our tribulations were very similar, even identical.

Both of us have knee problems to the point where we even have difficulty walking. We try to take it lightly, look inside, and move as normally as we can. Eventually we realized that the onset of these tribulations was the same for both of us, and often on Wednesdays. We wondered what was going on. It seemed that we had some problems in common, so we began looking for omissions.

We have been were friends for a long time, even before we became practitioners, so we asked ourselves if we are too attached to each other's company. Finally we decided that, although we need to be vigilant in this regard, it does not really seem to be an issue because we treat each other as fellow practitioners, correcting each other as needed. That didn't seem to be the answer.

So what was the problem? We are aware that the Embassy has listening devices and so we are careful not to discuss events or plans or anything that might be useful to the CCP. But we began to wonder if we were being careful enough.

Most of our time at the Embassy is spent doing the exercises, studying the Fa, and sending righteous thoughts, but there are moments when we clean the site or are hanging banners or when we just walk a bit to warm up our feet. During those times, were we talking to each other too much?

We decided that we should pay particular attention to our cultivation of speech. We defined the physical area where we are within range of their listening devices (we call this the "zone of silence") and we try not to have any unnecessary conversations within that range. We also make sure that we fill the time at the Embassy well so that there is almost no time to discuss anything.

The second observation that we made was that the kind of tribulations we were experiencing prevented us from doing the fifth exercise properly and for a long enough period of time. Had we been diligent enough in this respect? In retrospect we realized that we had not done the sitting exercise at the Embassy for a long time. The reason was that the standing exercises allow us to be more visible from the street. When we sit, particularly when the snowbanks are high in winter, we can't be seen by passing traffic. But even in the summer we were overlooking the fifth exercise, so we decided to correct that.

For me, though, it was not just at the Embassy that I had a problem. It was more personal than that. I had a long history of difficulty sitting on the ground, and although I had made some progress from time to time, I had rarely been able to sit for an hour in double lotus. Things got worse and worse. Sometimes I was barely able to walk, sometimes I could only walk, because I could not lie down, sit, or stand. Once I walked for two days and nights, until I was completely exhausted mentally and physically. Driving a car became extremely painful. I could not double cross my legs, and, although I tried, I was doing a pretty poor job of the fifth exercise.

Then one day in the rush to go to a group study in the morning I completely forgot to do the fifth exercise. As I sat there reading, my leg began to burn and ache and cramp. The pain would build to a crescendo, then ease off, then it would build again.

The penny finally dropped, and I realized that, although I was sitting at a desk, it hurt as if I were doing exercise five. Karma had accumulated because I was not diligent enough. It had to be eliminated, and if I neglected to do an exercise I would have to repay karma in another, less convenient way. Exercise was not just an issue at the Embassy, but also an important, personal issue.

In meeting with people, while clarifying the truth, or just in ordinary conversations, we hear comments like: "Falun Gong? Oh yes, Those are the people in front of the Chinese Embassy. I see them there all the time." We have also observed that after the CCP has done something particularly awful and the media has reported it, there is an increase in the number of people that honk as they pass by in their cars. There is also what we call the "Shen Yun effect," an increase in positive gestures and honks after Shen Yun has been to Ottawa

Both of us feel immense gratitude that we have been able to take part in this. It is sometimes hard. It is always an adventure, and in some way that is hard to express, it is very fulfilling.