A figure in a hooded gray sweatshirt sits motionless just inside the entrance to Lincoln Park.
In the misty gray morning, dried leaves crunch underfoot, mingling with the soft splashing of two swimmers, who strip off their sweatshirts and warm-up pants and dive into the park's frigid pool.
At 7 a.m., a second person walks through the park gate, nods briefly to the first and sits cross-legged on the blanket facing her. Lost in meditation, they do not make a sound.
Such is the solitary practice of Alameda's small yet determined group of Falun Gong practitioners on a chilly Wednesday morning.
As the Chinese government's crackdown against the spiritual sect drives the once-flourishing group underground, the ranks of regular Alameda Falun Gong practitioners have dwindled from a high of 10 in April down to just two by late summer.
Every morning an Alameda piano teacher and her tech-savvy son perform the Falun Gong's five core exercises under a towering pine tree, listening to tranquil music on a portable tape player.
Armed with handfuls of literature, news articles and even an explanatory CD-Rom, mother and son are entreating the island's large Asian population to study Falun Gong's blend of meditation and slow-motion movements.
"It's very simple," piano teacher Betty Lin said, describing exercises that require participants to hold each position for seven minutes. "Easy, but not easy. It calls for forbearance. Many people can't stay still in each position."
As the clock ticks toward 7:30 a.m. at Lincoln Park, more people arrive. A man with a white dust mask over his mouth revs a lawnmower, and a cadre of dog walkers and their panting pooches pass without noticing the two silent figures.
Although Alameda has a sizable Asian population, Falun Gong has not gained the same widespread support here as it has in China. Still, Lin and her son Mark Zou keep practicing the pre-dawn regimen and try to recruit other Alamedans by holding free workshops in an Encinal Avenue beauty salon.
On most days, only Zou and Lin arrive at the park for the 6:30 a.m. meditation. Other Alamedans occasionally join them.
And sometimes a 20-year-old white student from California State University at Humbolt will join them if he is visiting his grandmother in Alameda.
"The practice doesn't force anyone to do it," Zhu said. "You have to say, 'Well, this is good for my health and the health of my family. It will give me memory in the workplace.' "
International impacts While it is a small, uneventful practice at the park, Falun Gong is an issue that could not be more politically charged in China.
On Aug. 17, a Beijing court convicted four Falun Gong practitioners of murder, claiming that they organized a Tiananmen Square protest where two pairs of mothers and daughters lit themselves on fire.
Last month the Washington Post reported the Chinese government uses vicious torture to wipe out the Falun Gong, which some say poses a serious threat to China's communist regime.
Similar to Tai Chi or yoga, Falun Gong incorporates meditation with five exercises in slow motion. Practitioners say the sect is deeply rooted in qigong, an ancient Chinese healing practice that integrates movement and breathing.
Started by a former cereal clerk named Li Hongzhi in 1992, Falun Gong caught on in Chinese towns and rural areas, especially among retirees, who were drawn to its promises of better health.
By 1999, the spiritual sect attracted millions of followers worldwide. But after a march on Tiananmen Square that drew 10,000 to protest the communist government, China branded Falun Gong an "evil cult" and outlawed it.
Now, observers estimate that the government's crackdown has slashed the group's memberships figures and made the Falun Gong politically impotent in China.
But Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners, who still meet in dozens of parks and universities each morning, said they will not stop trying to bring attention to their claims of Chinese human rights abuses.
Alameda Mayor Ralph Appezzato declared a week in February as the island's official Falun Gong week and issued a proclamation honoring the island's practitioners.
Each day in San Francisco, Falun Gong practitioners sit silently in front of the Chinese Embassy to protest China's decision to outlaw the group. Lin joins them every Tuesday.
Protests in Washington
In July, Lin and 12 other Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners took a cross-country van trip to Washington, D.C., where hundreds of members marched on the capitol to draw attention to China's crackdown on the spiritual sect.
Along the way, the van of Falun Gong practitioners held press conferences in dozens of cities in an attempt to disprove the Chinese government's claim that the group is dangerous.
A July 11 picture in Colorado's Rocky Mountain News captured the scene: As the morning sun rises, Lin stands with her eyes shut and her arms raised above her head, smiling a little and deep in meditation.
Lin More than a decade after emigrating from China, Lin speaks fluent English, but she still stumbles over some words, struggling to make her point. But when the topic turns to the Falun Gong, the 55-year-old piano teacher becomes animated, speaking louder and gesturing with both hands.
"This is not political," Lin said. "You see, we are American. We have freedom to do everything. In China, there's no freedom for exercise or reading the book."
She describes the pain of the 24-hour hunger strike she joined in August to protest the treatment of Falun Gong prisoners in China. A minute later, she vows to dress in an iridescent yellow shirt, carry an "S.O.S" sign and march with other East Bay Falun Gong practitioners across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.
"We do everything for the Falun Dafa," she said.
Although practitioners originally used the term "Falun Dafa" to describe the entire movement and "Falun Gong" to describe the regimen of exercise and meditation, the terms increasingly have become interchangeable in the United States.
Like other forms of qigong, Falun Gong practitioners say the meditation and exercises bring them a panoply of health benefits.
Lin credits Falun Gong with easing her sharp ulcer pains, allowing her to bend her knees more easily and making her constant dizzy spells disappear. Outside Starbucks Coffee in South Shore Center, Lin grinned as she bent her knees in a perfect squat, the first time in years her knees have felt strong enough to support that kind of strain.
"Since I've practiced the Falun Gong, I'm healthy," she said.
A year ago, she said she spent hours locked in her house, playing the piano to vent her anger. Now, Lin teaches piano to her students but saves her free time for Falun Gong activism.
Betty and Mark Zou
When Zou started practicing Falun Gong, he said a knee injury from high school basketball disappeared within a month.
In college at California State University at San Francisco, Zou said he rebelled against this family by drinking heavily, swearing and becoming wrapped up in petty rivalries.
"This negative mindset was killing me," he said.
But when Lin persuaded her son to try Falun Gong meditations, Zou said he immediately felt less angry.
"Once I started to do the movement, my drinking habit was just gone," he said. "I don't know why. I stopped swearing for unknown reasons. Now I became a calm person."
The 24-year-old Zou wears a badge from Silicon Valley's TIBCO Software clipped to his khaki pants and a maroon shirt buttoned up to the top. Immediately, he opens his laptop and double clicks on an animated information program about the Falun Gong.
The computer's desktop shows a fiery red and orange sunset with the Falun Gong's precepts, "Truthfulness, compassion, tolerance," written in Chinese and English.
Falun Gong presents itself as a grassroots movement with no definite hierarchy. Organizers use the Internet to recruit practitioners throughout China and the world.
In the United States, members distribute a list of Falun Gong contacts in every region of the country. The group's literature urges potential members to call a U.S. hotline to find sites near their area.
"We are just trying to spread the philosophy," Zou said. "This is a good practice. This will be good for our community."
As Lincoln Park becomes more crowded Wednesday morning, Zou rises from his meditation, puts his pink mat away and reluctantly turns to leave. Although he said he would like to stay for the hour of standing exercises, he needs to reach his dot-com job by 9 a.m.
Once her son has waved good-bye, Lin begins an hour of standing exercises, following a set of Chinese directives on the tape.
As rays of sunlight break through the fog, his mother begins an hour of standing exercises, a solitary figure with outstretched arms.