(Clearwisdom.net) During the past nine years of my practice, I have experienced a lot of ups and downs. The following are some of my experiences during that time.
I. Making Informational Materials at Home
I continued to practice even after the persecution started in 1999. However, I did not go out to validate the Fa and chose to stay at home and practice by myself until 2001. In the beginning of 2001, I got in touch with a practitioner in North America as I browsed through Dafa information on the Internet. I obtained Teacher's latest articles and realized that the most important task was to validate the Fa. I followed Teacher's arrangements and bought a computer and a printer for my home. My mother was also a practitioner. We made informational materials exposing the persecution and distributed them. At first, I naively thought that once I posted the fliers outside, everyone would read them and understand why the persecution had happened. I posted 50 fliers outside that night. The next day, I found there was only one of them left. I realized that it was a tough task to validate the Fa and that it was impossible to let everyone know about the persecution in one day. I started to take it one step at a time.
1) Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts during the Process of Making Materials
In the beginning, we encountered a lot of evil elements in other dimensions. As soon as I did not have enough righteous thoughts, various forms of interference reared their heads. Sending forth righteous thoughts during the process of making materials ensured that the work go smoothly. When I had enough righteous thoughts, Teacher helped to solve all problems. Sometimes it seemed like the problems were solved through human techniques, but it was in fact the result of our righteous actions.
2) The Equipment and Myself Are of One Energy Field
A practitioner shared that talking to his computer and printer based on the Fa allowed them to assimilate to the Fa and perform at their best. I believed that our actions during cultivation have a direct influence on our surroundings. Teacher said in the "Lecture at the First Conference in North America":
"For example, if the grand cosmic body is in harmony but there is discordance on your part, and a knotty situation occurs only where you are, you are the one who isn't in accord with others. When you spot the cause within yourself and correct that problem, the situation will become harmonious and calm, and everyone will treat you nicely once again. I used a simple example to illustrate this principle."
3) Quality Control When Making Informational Materials
While working at the site, I have received all kinds of information from practitioners to try to save people in the local area. I tried not to pick the information to be used based on my personal preferences and carefully handled practitioners' requests based on the Fa. I turned down information that was likely to evoke attachments, lead to mistakes, deviate from the Fa, or distract practitioners from validating the Fa. I performed quality control following directions from the Minghui website. I picked up all the information that was publicized on Minghui and tried to make the content acceptable and attractive for the general public.
4) Saving People is a Priority
Sometimes when I rode my bike to distribute materials, when I was distracted by beautiful scenes on the way or thought about someone or something, my human notions emerged when I least expected it. Teacher said in Hong Yin, "A Visit to Sun-Moon Lake":
"A pool of water crystal clear, Reflecting the splendor of smoke-like clouds here and there, Here in this chaotic world, It has kept its rare beauty."
I understood that I should not have the attachment to comfort and get attached to personal preferences. Saving people is the most important thing.
II. Being Responsible to the Fa
I gradually got involved in editing the informational materials. This task involved helping sentient beings who live in many local areas. My heart gradually calmed down and I realized that this is a large responsibility and if I make even a small mistake, I could be the cause of great losses. I only used articles from Minghui and was meticulous about everything I edited, as well as about making photos and typesetting. I always discussed it with my mother before I sent the final version to Minghui. In order to be able to do this work well, I had to study the Fa constantly, as well as look inward and remove my attachments to zealotry, showing off, validating myself, laziness, and trying to get by.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art":
"When an ordinary person paints just one stroke, I know what kind of person he is, what kind of illnesses he has, how much karma he has, his state of mind, his family situation, etc. And all the thoughts the subject of the painting has and all of the factors associated with his body are fully displayed as well, including how much karma he has."
From this, I realized that a flier has elements from the author and in order to save sentient beings and validate the Fa efficiently, the author must be pure and righteous. A flier is like a Fa weapon and the process of editing is creating and honing that weapon. If the weapon is not righteous and powerful, how could it eliminate the evil beings in other dimensions and save people?
The process of editing fliers was also an opportunity to eliminate attachments. One time a flier that I believed to be well edited wasn't published on Minghui. I worried about if they did not receive my mail and suddenly I blamed those practitioners who worked for Minghui. I later calmed down and looked inward. First, I realized that the thought of blaming others was wrong. Then I checked the content of the flier again and discovered that it contained something inappropriate, and that was likely the reason why it wasn't published. Another time the content of my flier that was published on Minghui was modified a great deal, and I felt unhappy about it. I realized that I had wanted to validate myself at that moment. Every time something I edited was changed, I saw my shortcomings. Some did not fit the process of Fa rectification or were irrational, biased, extreme, awkward looking, or unacceptable for the general public. The more I saw my flaws, the better I became in editing.
III. Sharing with Practitioners Frankly and Bringing Everyone Together Harmoniously
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference":
"When Dafa disciples validate the Fa, it doesn't matter which country or region you're in, or which ethnic group you belong to--there are no such distinctions among Dafa disciples. You're all one body. For those of you in the audience who are of the yellow race, your soul might not be that type of being. If you're a Caucasian, you might not truly be a Caucasian. In other words, during cultivation you shouldn't be attached to those things, those things don't matter. So you should cooperate well with each other. Right now Dafa disciples are becoming more and more clearheaded because they've experienced so much and they're becoming more and more rational, so when you work together you're much more in harmony than before. The better you cooperate with each other as a whole the more powerful you are, and the more powerful you are the greater your impact. "
1) Working with the Minghui website
Minghui, being the official website of Falun Dafa, needs everyone's attention and cooperation. The website has won Teacher's approval. When we have experiences in our practice, while making informational materials, or obtaining information about persecution cases, we should submit everything to this website. I summarized some techniques for using Microsoft Word and submitted them to Minghui to save the editors time in searching for information. One time, Minghui singled out a picture with a caption I had edited and put it on the website to share with those who were also making similar materials. The picture had become a powerful Fa weapon in validating the Fa and saving sentient beings.
2) Working with the Minghui Website
I am a very meticulous person and hence in the process of making informational materials, I made very few mistakes and found other people's mistakes easily. I often give suggestions to Clearwisdom and communicated with these practitioners. When I found mistakes on the website, I promptly reminded the editors to correct them. I suggested that the materials posted on the website also contain Word documents instead of only PDF, this way practitioners could modify the information and add more local news to the materials.
3) Working with Local Practitioners
I started studying the Fa at almost the same time as my mother, so our home became an environment for improving our xinxing. We shared insights based on the Fa and ensured that the field at home was pure and righteous. We also share experiences with other practitioners regularly and talk about our mistakes or whether we had deviations in the overall direction we took. I encouraged my mother to edit fliers for the local area and taught her how to use a computer, from using Word to making pictures, changing the typesetting, and how to make the flier acceptable for the general public. My mother has been making fliers for the past 60 issues. We need to harmonize our environment beginning with ourselves, to our families, to the local area and to every practitioner.
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