(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master and fellow practitioners!
It has been 20 years since I became involved with Minghui. It feels like the blink of an eye but also unspeakably long. During this period, countless soul-stirring, significant events took place in the universe, the three realms, and the human world. Looking back, my heart is filled with reflections.
Transcending Human Notions: Understanding the Deeper Meaning of the Minghui Website
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an all-round persecution campaign against Falun Dafa practitioners in China on July 20, 1999. Once the Minghui website was established, it received countless persecution accounts every day. During the few years when it was most severe, the persecution and torture cases were escalating daily. It was appalling! Countless practitioners were tortured to death, while some became insane or disabled. Of a former happy family of six, only one remained. A faithful female practitioner was raped and sexually assaulted. The list goes on and on.
The persecution went beyond any imagination of those who grew up in Western countries. How can a human hold up when facing such unprecedented darkness and evil? Extremely tragic stories were reported, one after another. I cried while editing and organizing the articles every day. I felt my own world was filled with darkness. I was suffocating. I couldn’t see any hope. During the most difficult time, I sometimes thought, “Why don’t I do something else? This job is tortuous. It’s just too hard.”
I knew this state wasn’t right. I shouldn’t be affected by it, and I needed to rectify myself. But, back then, my understanding of the Fa was limited, and my righteous thoughts weren’t strong enough. Thus, most of the time, I dealt with it with human notions. I kept myself busy doing things so that I didn’t have the time to feel those negative emotions. Meanwhile, I also continued to study the Fa and fill my mind with the Fa. I told myself that this would eventually end and things would become good again.
Manifestation on the Human Level
With Master’s help and strengthening, my righteous thoughts became gradually stronger. Another way to look at it is that I might have become numb after reading so many articles and wasn’t affected so much anymore. But I knew that most of my grief was pushed deep down in my heart. It still lingered there and would manifest itself from time to time.
This situation lasted many years until one day when I studied the Fa and my heart was shocked when I read the following paragraph:
“Everything that Dafa disciples do at present is resisting the persecution of Dafa and Its disciples. Clarifying the truth, at the same time as exposing the evil, restrains the evil and lessens the persecution; and exposing the evil is at the same time purging from people’s minds the poison of the evil’s lies and deception—it is saving people. This is the grandest mercy,...” (“A Message,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I suddenly understood the meaning of running the Minghui website (with my limited understanding and my cultivation level at that time). With the website, we can expose the persecution of Dafa practitioners to international society and suppress the persecution while providing support to practitioners in China. This is the manifestation on the human level.
In other dimensions, it is the real manifestation of the boundless power of the Buddha Fa. It’s a stage to show how Master and righteous divine beings have eliminated the evil and how the Fa is rectifying the universe.
It’s my greatest honor to be a part of the Minghui website, which is an important part of Fa-rectification and the manifestation of the Fa in the human realm. Why do I have so many negative thoughts and feelings about the persecution? It’s exactly because I didn’t have sufficient understanding of the Fa.
Validating Dafa to Awaken Sentient Beings
At the same time, we are saving people by exposing the persecution. But what we are showing is more than exposing the persecution. It shows that Dafa disciples remain firm in their faith, how they live by the principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance) in their daily lives, and how they demonstrate great forbearance and compassion in the face of the persecution.
At the same time, practitioners help the world’s people discern what’s good and what’s bad. Through each and every persecution account, they hope to awaken people’s conscience, help them learn the facts, and rid them of the propaganda they have been fed by the Chinese regime so that sentient beings choose the right position in the historic battle between the righteous and the evil, and have a bright future.
That is to say, the purpose of our exposing the persecution isn’t to tell the world’s people our suffering. It’s not to seek justice for ourselves, nor do we want to earn people’s sympathy. It’s not for ourselves, but for sentient beings.
The True Reason for Exposing the Persecution
Through the stories of practitioners’ suffering, we help the world’s people renounce the evil, choose kindness, and be saved. By telling the stories of our suffering, we show a Dafa disciple’s kindness and broad heart. We are validating Dafa.
It is not only our personal cultivation, which would have us suffer due to karmic reasons. As a cultivator, we don’t need others’ sympathy, nor do we seek justice in this world. Only through suffering can one repay karma, raise their xinxing, assimilate to Dafa, and reach Consummation.
However, we are at a special time–the Fa-rectification of the universe. We shoulder the responsibility of assisting Master to rectify the Fa. The suffering is forced upon us by the old forces, which Master asks us to negate. Thus, we expose the persecution to save people. It’s based on the needs of the Fa-rectification. It’s for the benefit of others. It’s the most righteous and most compassionate thing given to sentient beings.
After I understood that, the on-and-off pain in my heart that had lasted for more than ten years disappeared. When I read persecution articles again, I no longer felt heavy or helpless. I only see a Dafa disciple’s compassion and resilience. I feel the responsibility I shoulder.
I think the reason why it took me so long to understand this is because I have been influenced by human sentimentality. I had strong emotions for my fellow practitioners, sympathy and indignation, which prevented me from clearly understanding the Fa principles.
I think maybe many practitioners in China felt the same as I did. If we are stuck in human sentimentality, it’s very easy to think that we are persecuted by certain people or a certain government without seeing the essence of the matter.
Maturing
When reviewing the persecution articles, I still see deep resentment toward the communist regime in many papers. Perhaps this kind of paper could move certain individuals in the audience, but because we are still cultivating among human beings and haven’t transcended this level, it’s hard for ordinary people to feel our compassion or see our supernormal side, and it would prevent the articles from doing their work. If people writing articles can understand this and improve their understanding of the Fa, remove sentimentality and resentment from their articles, and think about things from the basis of how to save more people, then our website would be purer and play a more significant role.
Many practitioners in China made the difficult choice to go to Tiananmen Square to tell people the truth after the persecution began in July 1999. But many may have simply been following others without understanding why they had to take that step. Years later, many of them suffered severe persecution, some dropped in their cultivation levels, some came back and resumed cultivation, and some have remained steadfast over the years. But after a long cultivation journey, most have made progress on their cultivation paths. They have matured and became true Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples.
Sometimes I think that I’m experiencing a similar path. When I first began to work for the Minghui website, I didn’t really understand what I was doing. I just knew this was something I had to do. I suffered hardships, both mentally and physically, but I cultivated in the process. Through constantly studying the Fa and ridding myself of human thinking, I finally made it through. The Fa revealed itself to me and had me understand the significance of the Minghui website at my level.
It was like what Master said:
“The paths of cultivation are variedBut none is outside the Great Law”(“Unimpeded,” Hong Yin Vol. II, Translation Version A)
Thank you, Master!
Cultivating Compassion While Working With Fellow Practitioners
Although Minghui work is sacred, I would still meet with many cooperation issues in my daily work. Once, I was misunderstood by another practitioner. After I realized it, I thought, “I have to explain it to him or he might blame me later on.” I sent out an email, cleared up our misunderstandings, and everything returned to normal. But somehow, I kept thinking about it afterwards. I felt something was missing. What went wrong? Shouldn’t I explain myself?
Master said:
“Of course, it’s fine to try to explain things with good intent; there’s nothing wrong with trying to clear things up.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
About two days later, a thought entered my mind: we should “explain things with good intent.” I suddenly understood. I was indeed wrong because my explanation was to prevent myself from being blamed, which was not a good intent. I thought that I couldn’t let people misunderstand me, I didn’t want to be wronged, and I didn’t want him to develop negative thoughts about me. It was all about myself. Why didn’t I think about him? If I didn’t write the email to him, he might have been upset, and it might have affected him in doing the three things or studying the Fa. There was nothing wrong with my explaining things, but I did it with the attachment to benefiting myself, so I still did the wrong thing.
Through this experience, I also deeply felt the Fa’s immense power and how Master looks after us with enormous compassion. I truly feel that every word in Zhuan Falun is Fa, and every word in Zhuan Falun has very deep meaning.
I reflect often on my cultivation. The above are some of my understandings at my current level. I welcome fellow practitioners to point out to me anything improper.
(Presented at the Minghui 20th Anniversary Fa Conference. Selected and edited)
