Case Analysis
"Law is the code of conduct for human being in the social life. Namely, it is a criterion to safeguard the interests of all while to restrict the action of individual within a certain scope." As laws are a set of norms that are drawn up or recognized by the state and enforced by the coercive force of the state to reflect the will of the ruling class (class in power), it is a common practice that any responsible government will develop a set of laws and regulations which are suitable for and in the interest of the country it governs and enforce them without any compromise. That is to say, laws stand for equity and justice. For this reason, laws are always on the contrary to evils and therefore are hated and disrespected by evils. Then what is the attitude of Falun Gong toward laws and regulations?
On April 26, 1996, Li Hongzhi claims in his speech titled Cultivation and Work that: "The Dafa of the universe (the Buddha Fa) is coherent and complete, from the highest level to the lowest level. You should know that ordinary human society also comprises a level of the Fa...Ordinary human society is the manifestation of the Fa at the lowest level, and it is also the form of existence of life and matter for the Buddha Fa at this level."
In Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference, Li Hongzhi went more specific on the relationship between Falun Dafa and human laws. He said: "All the creatures living in the three realms were born for and made by the Dafa, in other words, all the forms in the three realms, including the diverse forms of human society, inter alia, the present human laws."
That is to say, as far as Falun Gong is concerned, the Falun Dafa is higher than any of the human laws and regulations. In this context, whenever the government takes actions on the illegal acts committed by Falun Gong group，the Falun Gong practitioners naturally think that this is a rebellion of lower power against the highest. Whenever there is someone or organization who questions or criticizes the Falun Gong, the Falun Gong practitioners deem it challenging the highest law.
Therefore, it was natural for Tang Liangyou, the dramatis personae of My Day on April 25, went to Beijing to protect the Dafa immediately after he was informed and asked by the higher level Falun Gong organization to go to Beijing to "rectify and protect the Fa" despite of his ill son.
Moreover, Zhou Runjun, a figure in the report The Whole Story of Falun Gong Diehards Sabotaging CATV Network to Broadcast Illegal Programs, dared to damage the CATV facilities regardless of law in an attempt to propagate Falun Dafa.
Here is another example, Wang Jindong, as described in Blindness, Death and Rebirth, took an extreme way to "protect the Dafa," setting himself on fire. When recalling his self-burning, he admitted that even when his burning body was being put out by others, he did not pay attention to his pain, and rather he stood up and shouted: "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance is the law of the universe, the Fa deserves to be respected by all people in the world. The Master is the major Buddha in the universe!"
Li Xiangchun, whose story is told in the report An American Citizen Punished by Law in China, held firm the teachings of Li Hongzhi and Falun Dafa as universe law and the Falun Gong practitioners are supermen free of binding laws, thought that human laws have no binding force on them and determined to "correct all the incorrect laws," including the Chinese laws. He planned to reveal the truth of Falun Gong being persecuted in China to the mass through cable TV in Yangzhou, China at 1:00 October 10, 2002. Consequently he was punished by law.
In order to make Falun Dafa more solemn and fearful, persuade his followers to get free of human laws, Li Hongzhi says in Zhuan Falun: "What people consider good for a person is to fulfill more self-interest among everyday people, thereby living a better life. To the great enlightened beings, this person is worse off."
In his The Law of Zhuan Falun Explained, Li Hongzhi states directly that "Good and bad as judged by humans are reversed," that "Ordinary people are all lost among themselves, and when they think that what they do is something good, looking from high levels it is clear that it's the opposite."
In 2001, Li Hongzhi said as before in his speech The Dafa is All-Encompassing: "The Three Realms are the reverse of everything in the cosmos, so the Fa's principles have also provided beings at this level with reversed principles suitable for the existence of everyday people, such as conquering the world with military force, the victor governing the country, acquiring food by killing, the strong being heroes, and so on. Along with concepts of a good person, a bad person, war, etc., all of these things have given rise to ordinary humans' principles and human understandings. All of these are wrong when judged by the righteous Fa-principles at high levels in the cosmos. So a cultivator needs to let go of all the notions and principles of everyday people, and only then can he cultivate to a high level and break out of the Three Realms, the reverse of the cosmos."
As stated above by Li Hongzhi, the principles of the human world are reverse to that in the universe, and therefore the human laws cannot correct the behavior of people, only the Falun Dafa, also called "the Law of the Universe," is the "embodiment of truth," can correct the human behavior and then lift human morality. Since the Falun Gong practitioners learn by heart the "lections" given by Li Hongzhi over time and hold firm that the principles of the human world are reverse to that in the universe, whenever someone or unit speak ill of Falun Gong or identify the problems within Falun Gong, the Falun Gong followers will think that those people or units have a wrong attitude toward Falun Gong and then pay a visit to argue for Falun Gong and ask why they did so.
Why did Wang Jindong set himself on fire to "protect the Fa"? The immediate answer seems to lie in the fact that he often discussed the experience of Zhuan Falun, the teachings and "lections" downloaded from Minghui website with other followers in an effort to improve their "understanding of Dafa." Self-burning is bad if judged according to human principles, but in the sense that the human principles are opposite to that of Falun Dafa. A theory derived by Li Hongzhi, the self-burning means to "get rid of attachment." In addition, at that time Li Hongzhi also gave lections asking his followers to protect the Dafa by getting rid of "the attachment to living body and to reach Consummation." This made Wang Jindong and other followers firmly believe that protecting the Dafa by self-burning agrees with the principles of Falun Gong.
Li Xiangchun, the figure in the report An American Citizen Punished by Law in China, thought when he was arrested that he would not be punished by Chinese laws and would not be sentenced to prison for he had special links with Li Hongzhi. For his Master Li Hongzhi has ever boasted: "My roots are all deeply planted in the universe, and if someone could affect you, he could affect me, and to put it directly, he'd be able to affect the universe." He thought that he could not be punished.
In his lections, Li Hongzhi expresses time and time again his opposition or disagreement with human laws. For instance, when Li Hongzhi was teaching the Fa in the United States he said: "The laws humankind has made are in fact mechanically restricting people and sealing them off, including the lawmakers themselves. Humans are continuously sealing themselves off. They seal off and seal off to the point that they're left with no way out in the end. When too many laws are made, humans are controlled like animals and have no way out; then no one can come up with any solution ... The world has developed to this day, where everyone regards the legal system as good. Actually, it's the last resort when there's no way out." And "Laws can't represent Gods."
Li Hongzhi also claimed: "How do Buddhas look at these issues? Your government permits them. Laws permit them. Still, it is only the approval by mankind itself. The principles of heaven do not permit them!" He thinks that, "The law of your government is not the truth of the universe." "That's because the law of a government is made by humans, and when humans make laws, they have the intention to rule and punish others."
However, Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong under the cover of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. In the early times, in order to confuse the public, Li Hongzhi didn't speak ill of laws and defy the laws, rather when he was teaching Falun Gong he asked his followers to abide by the national laws and regulations of the country where the followers are living.
Notification for Practitioners of Falun Dafa specifies clearly that, "All Falun Dafa cultivators must strictly observe the laws of their countries of residence. Any conduct that violates a country's policies or regulations would directly oppose the merits and virtues of Falun Dafa. The individual concerned is responsible for the violation and all of its consequences."
However, when the matter of Falun Gong propagated by Li Hongzhi appeares to be contradictory to the governmental laws and regulations and as the conflicts developing, for example, the superstition activities are banned by law in China and the person in charge has to bear legal liability. The Article 300 in Criminal Law of China and Article 24 in Security Administration Penalty Rules all specify that "taking advantage of blind worship to obstacle the enforcement of national laws and regulation, to result in death, to seduce women and defraud money and goods, to disturb the social order and harm public interest and other's health" are all illegal and criminal acts.
It is evident from Li's lections that his theories such as Evil Removal, Karma Elimination, Truth-clarifying and Consummation are all meant to incite and bewitch his followers to openly offend against the national laws and regulations. Consequently, some Falun Gong practitioners were punished by law. This produces more or less fear and constrains in Li's mind toward national laws and regulations. His opposing the existence of laws and regulations is in fact to absolve himself from blame and at the same time to argue for the existence of Falun Gong, hoping that Falun Gong practitioners could accept this kind of viewpoint. When a Falun Gong practitioner accepts this theory, he certainly sees the national laws as the obstacle in his way to Consummation. Moreover, as Li Hongzhi defines the Falun Dafa as the highest law, in case there is a conflict between Falun Gong and the society, the Falun Gong followers usually make trade-off between the two.
It can be seen from above cases that, neither Tang Liangyou, who went to Beijing to attend "4·25" incident, nor Zhou Runjun, who damaged communication facilities, or Wang Jindong, who set himself on fire at Tiananmen Square, all disrespected the national laws. One of their purposes to go to Zhongnanhai where the central government is located is to "appeal the government not to arrest them," for they went there to protect Dafa and asked the government to let free the practitioners arrested in Tianjin. This kind of behavior, as is understood, is encouraged by Li's lections.
Li Xiangchun, as described in An American Citizen Punished by Law in China, just thought that the laws can do nothing to him. Consequently, when he was committing crime by inserting cutting news on TV at 1:00 a.m. on October 22, 2002, he was caught red-handed. On March 21, 2003, the Intermediate People's Court of Yangzhou City sentenced Li Xiangchun three years in jail plus deportation on the charge of damaging broadcast television facilities. Li Xiangchun ended in prison just because he showed no respect for the Chinese law. Though he repeatedly smeared the Chinese government for illegal imprisonment, the law is based on facts and impartial. Anyone or organization including so-called Falun Gong can not deny the facts. Whoever violates the law provisions will be duly punished.
In a word, what can be derived by the Falun Gong followers from Li's remarks on human laws and Falun Dafa is that Falun Data is higher and greater than the human laws, that Falun Dafa is right and underlying, that any laws contradictory to Falun Dafa are wrong, that Falun Dafa is the fittest law for both the human world and the universe, that the social laws are restrictive on people and should be abolished. In this context, when Falun Gong followers were asked by their higher-level organization to attend "4.25" incident, most of them went there without hesitation, leaving social laws and regulations behind.
