(Clearwisdom.net) I started to learn Falun Dafa at the beginning of 2000. Since then, I have been validating the Fa mostly by writing articles. As a matter of fact, when I was a student, my writing skill was not good and I had the lowest grades in my class. Not until several years before I attained the Fa did I start to grasp some writing techniques. During an on-the-job training, I happened to participate in a writing competition. To my surprise, I won the first place among all the participants from the colleges in Taiwan. Afterwards, my confidence in writing improved tremendously. This laid the foundation for validating the Fa through writing articles later on. I believe that all of this did not happen accidentally! Here, I want to share my experiences with fellow practitioners and my understandings over the last several years of writing. Please kindly point out anything that is improper.
1. Writing is a process for me to continually correct myself and remove my attachments
During a normal conversation or an impromptu sharing in a Fa study, one needs to react quickly and decide what one wants to talk about in a very short time. Therefore one's attachments are often exposed. However, while writing something, one can stop and rewrite the article if one fails to write it well the first time. So the impure elements can be washed away through repetitive corrections and modifications. Additionally, in the process of writing articles, and when studying the Fa, it is likely that the Buddhas, Taos, and gods, who exist in different levels, give me hints. Therefore, when I finish an article it is often of high quality. During this process, my xinxing also improves.
Some fellow practitioners have indicated to me that my articles were well written, which is actually the result of continuous corrections and cleaning up of these articles.
2. My attachments are exposed during my writing
Seeing that the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has been spread with full force, I thought that I should also make a contribution. I wrote five articles and systematically disclosed the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), using the Nine Commentaries and some other relevant articles as a reference. During the writing process, I put all my energy into this work. I did not get enough sleep and neglected to practice the exercises. I spent almost two months writing these five articles. I thought that these articles were well written.
I was confident that the articles would surely be published. However, after I sent the articles to different web publication sites, I did not receive any response, as if they never had received them. I had put so much time and effort into this project, just to receive such a result. I immediately felt very discouraged. I did not even want to pick up my pen and write again; neither did I want to go to any group activities. I knew that this condition was not right, but I was just unable to change it.
Later, after searching within myself, I realized that these five articles had nothing novel. Furthermore, most of the contents were taken from the Nine Commentaries and from other practitioners' articles. All I did was just reorganize them. I have not been to mainland China; therefore I do not have a deep understanding of the CCP. I wrote some points purely using my own imagination. So it was predictable that these articles were not accepted.
From this incident, I saw my attachments. I did not have a pure and clean mindset when writing these articles. I also developed some grudges when the articles were not accepted. I was far from the standards of a Dafa practitioner!
3. The Fa-validation projects need actual help and involvement
During an opinion sharing, I made some critical remarks and gave some suggestions regarding Dafa practitioners' media work. After listening to my words, one fellow practitioner said in an unfriendly tone, "The fellow practitioners working on media projects have suffered a lot. Don't increase their burdens anymore. After you make a suggestion, you need to execute it yourself." After hearing this response, my immediate reaction was, "What kind of logic is this! The purpose of sharing is to let everyone raise his or her concerns. This is the only way that we practitioners can improve as one whole body. Is it still called a sharing if one were not allowed to make suggestions? As for the logic that one cannot ask others to do well if one has failed to do well, isn't it the warped notion that the evil group..."
After I returned home, I thought about the practitioner's words and found that they were not completely unreasonable. The media work is for validating the Fa and we definitely need to help and actually get involved. Since a Dafa practitioner does not encounter anything that is accidental, my hearing this kind of response certainly did not happen by chance either!
Since I started practicing Falun Dafa, I have almost stopped writing articles that are not related to Fa validation. I have taken on the work of writing some articles for our media that serve everyday people. These articles are for all people to read and enhance their understanding. After all, if every Dafa practitioner only writes articles related to cultivation practice or Fa-validation, it would be very difficult for our media to function in an everyday society.
4. Do not let down the great trust placed in me by the cosmos
Master said:
"So there must be a reason for letting a certain Dafa disciple have supernormal abilities while he cultivates... However, a small number of students who have supernormal abilities have failed to live up to their great missions and have not done well. They're smug about the little tiny abilities they have, and their problem even goes beyond showing off, they've even gone on a long detour, some of them have even developed crooked understandings, and still they haven't realized it! You have failed to live up to the great trust placed in you by the cosmos, and that's no minor thing." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
Some time ago, a fellow practitioner asked me to write something for a project. As I was very busy and had many things to do then and as I also believed that it was not yet time to write about that topic, I refused the request with an unfriendly tone. After my wife heard this, she did not agree with me. She pointed out, "You sounded as if you had some extraordinary talents." My wife's words struck me like a stick wake-up. She was right. Just because I have such a little talent, I viewed myself as being above fellow practitioners and even looked down upon others. If I let this trend continue, then some day I would think of myself as being a Buddha.
Some fellow practitioners who know how to repair and maintain computers often go to all the other places in order to help repair computers for Dafa practitioners who have computers that require service. Sometimes they are already very tired, but they still have the patience to repeatedly explain the operating procedures to the elderly practitioners. They validate the Fa and have no complaints. Think about it. How far have I lagged behind those practitioners?
It cannot be denied that the practitioners who have some supernormal abilities or some talents, on the surface, may appear to have suffered more hardships and shouldered more Dafa work. However, is it correct that the corresponding amount of mighty virtue has also been given to them? If we do not bear the hardship of doing a little more Dafa work, or if we often speak to fellow practitioners in unfriendly tones, or make them feel pressured, worried, and even intimidated when they ask for our help, have we not already failed to live up to the great trust placed in us by the cosmos?
On the other hand, let's assume that we ourselves encounter difficulties and need help during our validation of the Fa. Even though we know that a specific practitioner can help us, if we are unwilling to ask for his help because we had conflicts with him before and are afraid of his unfriendly attitude, then we would rather let the Fa-validation work be affected and even stopped. If this were really the case, then we were only validating ourselves. Are we still validating the Fa? Aren't our thoughts based on our own selfish considerations?
5. Let the truth-clarification articles exhibit their powers
I wrote some materials for truth-clarification on the Internet. These materials contain many short articles clarifying the truth, which can be used not only for chatting on the Internet, but also, after some reorganization, for mailing, faxing, and pasting on the internet forums, or for making telephone calls. Later I found that they could also be used for personal truth clarification to everyday people.
Recently, I changed my job and came to a new work place. There were more than ten people who did not have a correct understanding of Dafa. They often asked why the CCP has persecuted Falun Gong, why there are so many people practicing Falun Gong and what benefits one can get by practicing Falun Gong, etc. I was not able to answer some of the questions clearly in a short time. Some people asked the questions without really wanting to know the answers, so they ran away before I was finished with my explanations. Later, whenever I encountered such a situation, I would find the answers and the relevant facts they wanted to know about in the prepared truth-clarification materials. I printed the materials and then showed them to those people. As a result, all the employees in my work place have come to a correct understanding of the Fa. Furthermore, over half of them have read Zhuan Falun, and some of them have already tried to practice the Falun Gong exercises.
Several months ago, I wrote a truth-clarification article. Besides having my fellow practitioners help me to send them out, I also sent it to over 600 Internet addresses that I had collected. I also posted the article to several advertisement boards in the neighborhood. It was found that these efforts were very effective.
Over the several years of my writing, no matter how much hardship I have suffered from and no matter how busy I have been, I always made sure that my articles met certain quality standards. I found, based on my experience, that if the articles did not meet the required quality, their role of validating the Fa would not fully manifest. I believe that writing an article is like creating a painting artwork. The article should be perfected as much as possible in order to attract more people to read it and let them be moved!
Finally, I would like to share with fellow practitioners one paragraph of Master's Fa in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago," and let's use the Fa to encourage each other:
"So many years have passed over the course of history, the Three Realms have existed for so long, and so many sentient beings have come here over time, but all hopes are being placed in this one moment out of all the ages. This instant is precious beyond measure. Completing the last leg of this journey well is what's most magnificent."
August 8, 2005
