(Clearwisdom.net)
1. The Great Significance of Writing Fa-Rectification Articles
I would like to share my personal understanding of the significance of writing Fa-rectification articles.
- Essential for Eliminating the Evil
The evil old forces, with their deviated notions and viciously jealous, have formed a complete and thorough system to control the entire persecution process against Teacher, Dafa, Dafa disciples and the sentient beings. They have used the media tools to spread their lies and defamations and thus have been able to deceive and intimidate all living beings. This has brought all sentient beings to the edge of great danger and put them in a tremendous tribulation. Most of the damage has been done through the use of words.
Dafa practitioners' writing Fa-rectification articles is a process of exposing the evil and eliminating the evil. These articles expose the full manifestation of the evil forces. Fa-rectification articles are written so that the sentient beings of the colossal firmament can completely, systematically and deeply understand the manifestation of the old evil forces. They can then understand the enormous damage that these forces have brought upon all sentient beings.
- Necessary for Clarifying the Truth and Saving People
When people read Fa-rectification articles, they are able to completely and genuinely understand the truth of Fa-rectification. Accordingly, their thoughts are changed, and their xinxing standard [mind or heart nature; moral character] is upgraded. Moreover, they are able to rationally recognize the danger of their present situation, to distinguish right from wrong and good from bad. Their righteous thoughts and compassion are awakened so they can be saved.
- Vital for Validating and Displaying the Greatness of Dafa
In the course of cultivation practice, one's understanding of the Fa will be different at different levels and different realms. These insights and realizations gained through cultivation are not personal property. Therefore, it is every practitioner's responsibility to put his own personal experience of cultivation practice in Dafa into writing, in order to demonstrate, harmonize and validate Dafa.
- Necessary for Purifying and Rectifying One's Own Self
The process of writing Fa-rectification articles is actually a process of "taking the Fa as the teacher" and "cultivating your inner self." This is indeed a process of "enduring physical hardship" when one becomes tired while writing as well as "enduring mental hardship" when thinking hard. It's a method for wisely and rationally understanding one's self and also rectifying one's own world. The development of the writing helps one eliminate the bad elements in one's own world, break through to higher, deeper, wider, finer and broader levels and ascend to one's own original and highest position.
Teacher is constantly keeping an eye on Clearwisdom Net and other Dafa websites. Sentient beings of heaven and earth are all watching Dafa websites every day. The effect of the articles that clarify the truth, expose the evil and validate Dafa in the Fa-rectification is immeasurable. Their power to shock and eliminate the evil is indeed very immense.
I often experienced the following situations. Sometimes, even though I understand something in the Fa, it might not always be quite clear to me and therefore I do not take it as seriously as I should. However, when I read about the same issue in other practitioners' articles, all of a sudden it becomes very clear to me -- often clarifying the same realization I had. Or, there were times when I had attachments in my mind that were so difficult to let go of, to the point that I was disappointed and depressed with myself. But when I read other practitioners' articles and found similar experiences regarding eliminating attachments, I would be greatly inspired and supported -- so then I too could do a good job in that area! Sometimes when other practitioners exposed their attachments and analyzed those attachments in detail, it seemed as if these same attachments in me would become weaker after they were exposed; therefore they could no longer control me like they used to.
Through reading other practitioners' Fa-rectification articles, I have come to realize that when a practitioner puts his pure insights into writing and publishes them on the web, these pure insight becomes the property of more practitioners. This therefore once again injects a new righteous element into Fa particles as a whole. When a practitioner exposes his deviated notions or attachments on the web, the essence of the deviation becomes more clearly recognized by other practitioners; thus it is no longer capable of controlling Dafa practitioners so rampantly like it used to. That's why I think it doesn't matter what level your cultivation practice has reached; as long as you are a genuine practitioner, your perception might be a helpful reference to others.
- Necessary as Future Reference
I personally think that the "reference" which Dafa practitioners are leaving for the future is, to a great extent, preserved in Dafa practitioners' Fa-rectification articles. Although references are also preserved in other forms, for example audio and visual media,
written material is the foundation and main component for systematically, completely, and sensitively preserving such references for not only the near but also the distant future.
2. How to Write Fa-Rectification Articles
The writing of Fa-rectification articles is different from that of ordinary articles. First, one has to stand on a righteous foundation or base -- from the point of complete selflessness and offering salvation to people. Fa-rectification articles are to validate Dafa instead of validating one's own understanding. If in an article, a practitioner unconsciously makes constant efforts to quote Teacher's Fa to validate his own understanding, he is falling into the trap of explaining the Fa with his own understanding. To put it seriously, this is the beginning of undermining Dafa. This kind of writing, which is based on "selfishness," is a product of empirical science. It already has had a certain degree of impact on people and on Dafa practitioners, and thus it must be abandoned. This foundation of "selfishness" must not be applied to the writing of Fa-rectification articles.
Below is a little of my present understanding on how to write Fa-rectification articles:
Break Away from the Restraint of One's Postnatal False Self
We should break through the sentiment of fear, the emotion of shying away from toughness. "Don't wait. Don't rely on others." Take the initiative; actively, voluntarily, consciously take writing Fa-rectification articles as an important mission to assist the Fa-rectification, and as one of the important components of Fa-rectification cultivation. Engage in writing Fa-rectification articles whole-heartedly.
Don't be hindered by everyday people's judgements or notions that you are lacking high-level education, that you are too old, or that you lack writing experience. Nor should you be hindered by the notion of "I can" or "I can't." Don't be obstructed by the notions of "my understanding is not high, other practitioners' understanding is high and correct, other practitioners are capable of writing [better than I]." Would Dafa websites have such a profound, broad, extraordinary and intricate content today, if every practitioner waited for other practitioners to write? What then, would the situation of Fa-rectification be now?
In order to write good Fa-rectification articles, one must first study the Fa well. One also needs to read more Fa-rectification articles published on Dafa websites. This way you'll know what areas of content have been published by other practitioners. At the same time, in the course of reading, you'll be inspired and your understanding will be higher. Meanwhile, you should keep an eye on related reports and other materials that are necessary for clarifying the truth to offer salvation to people during the course of Fa-rectification.
Once your writing topic is determined, don't be overly anxious to finish it quickly. Wait until after you have completely written all the contents you want to write, then "take the Fa as the teacher" and carefully edit it so that other practitioners and people can read it better. You can use everyday people's existing ways and methods but don't let them overly influence or restrict your writing. Be serious and earnest, and keep your focus as you write. The words, phrases, sentences, rhetoric and writing methods that everyday people use can be recycled or you may use new words, phrases, etc.
Actually, since the second half of last year, especially since last October, the Fa-rectification articles on the web are of an unprecedented high quality. The writing skills of Dafa practitioners are becoming more proficient, and they are making continuous improvement.
How to Correctly Quote Teacher's Words
How to quote Teacher's words is a very serious issue and a very tough issue to handle. If you directly copy Teacher's original words to your articles, without using double quotation marks or indicating their origin, you would be suspected of plagiarizing the Fa. Also, if you quote a lot of Teacher's words in your articles, and especially if you randomly cut or shorten sentences to fit into your articles, even though you indicate the origins and use double quotations marks, you would then be suspected of taking words from the texts out of context and undermining the Fa.
Sometimes, the problem of incorrect priority occurs. For example, you might use Teacher's words as a base to prove that your understanding is right, instead of stating that your understanding is achieved by studying the Fa, your pure awakening and Teacher's teaching.
Some practitioners may say that we should only write down our own righteous understanding, and avoid quoting Teacher's words as much as possible. Yet my understanding is: don't be afraid of confronting the challenge of every detail. Instead, face this issue with a serious and responsible mentality. What Teacher says is the general Fa and principles. As you make use of specific situations and examples in your cultivation practice, and incorporate these into your articles quoting Teacher's words, you are reminding other practitioners to bring their attention to this area and deepen their understanding of what Teacher says regarding this specific area, which might have been unnoticeable to them in the past.
3. How to Deal With the Issue of Being Published or Not Being Published
When we write Fa-rectification articles, we shouldn't develop attachments to our articles' being published or not.
There were times that I thought I had written a very good article, but it was not published right away, so my mind was not at ease. Then after a while it was published, so I was happy. There's nothing wrong with being happy, but I got carried away with this emotion and developed a new attachment. In the course of cultivation, we cannot afford to develop new attachments unconsciously. We must be on the alert for this.
Sometimes an article was not published at all. So I thought to myself, my writing was so good, my understanding was so high, how could it not be published? This led to an unbalanced mentality.
We should understand this issue of an article's being published or not published, based on the foundation of Dafa. The goal of our writing Fa-rectification articles is to assist Teacher in Fa-rectification instead of just publishing our articles. We have to constantly remember this: cultivation practice has nothing to do with fame and personal gain, and everything is attained naturally without pursuit. Meanwhile, we should realize that our personal understanding is only partial and is limited to certain levels.
4. How to Handle the Issue of Keeping up With Teacher's Fa-Rectification Progress
In the past, although we were able to write articles about the circumstances and progress of our local Fa-rectification situation, and sent these articles to Dafa websites, our understanding of doing this in a timely and complete manner was sometimes insufficient. Later, after we more fully recognized the great importance of keeping up with Fa-rectification, and saw where we were deficient, we were able to collect material and edit articles in a more timely manner.
Teacher said: "However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is." (Essentials For Further Advancement II, "Also in a Few Words") As long as we try hard, from our heart, we can do a good job. We must have a firm belief that Dafa practitioners are omnipotent, indestructible, and capable of conquering all obstacles.
The above is just my personal understanding of the present situation. Please kindly point out
anything improper.