Multilingual Minghui Teams Hold Experience-Sharing Conference

(Minghui.org) The Minghui website is translated into 21 languages. An online experience-sharing conference was held on September 24 for practitioners working on 20 of these, representing all of the translation teams aside from English, the largest, which recently held its own conference. Twelve practitioners presented their papers, sharing their stories of working on multilingual Minghui and thanking Master for arranging precious opportunities for them to spread the information of Falun Dafa to people who speak their own languages and to help them to eliminate their attachments and improve in cultivation practice.

Due to the high-security nature of the Minghui work, practitioners working on multilingual teams are rarely able to meet each other in person. This was especially the case during the pandemic. Thus, each Minghui team held their own experience-sharing conferences recently so that practitioners could learn from each other and encourage one another to do better amid difficulties. The experience-sharing conference of the multilingual teams was the last among the various Minghui team conferences.

Chinese Minghui was established 23 years ago, and practitioners around the world have worked hard to set up Minghui in twenty additional languages. Minghui is currently available online in English, Bosnian, German, Spanish, Persian, French, Hebrew, Croatian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovakian, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Serbian. An additional language site will be launched soon.

English Minghui held its online conference on September 11, while the other 20 non-Chinese languages Minghui held a joint conference on September 24. The multilingual versions of Minghui have enabled people around the world to learn about Dafa events and the persecution in China.

Among practitioners who attended the September 24^th experience-sharing conference, some were veteran members of the Minghui teams in their specific languages, while others had just joined the teams several years ago.

As a top persecution target of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Minghui teams have a high security requirement to ensure stable operation. Several conference presenters said that some team members had never met each other despite having worked together for many years and that the work tended to be repetitive, translating and polishing articles day in and day out. But many practitioners considered it a great opportunity to translate and edit persecution news, experience-sharing articles as well as even reports from around the world, which greatly helped their own cultivation as well.

Perseverance for 10 Years

One presenter shared her story of working on the Minghui project in the past 10 years, during which time she hardly took a day off. From working hard to improve her translation skills to being in charge of editing, from helping others improve their translation skills to motivating the entire team, she has been working tirelessly day after day, and year after year. She couldn’t see the direct results of her team’s efforts of translating, editing, and posting articles, as she didn’t know how many people the articles might have saved. She had also not met some of her team members even once. Despite these difficulties, she kept doing her work without any breaks.

Although such a cultivation environment may seem dull, she did not feel lonely. Working on Minghui articles, she could sense the momentum of Master’s Fa-rectification process. Translating and editing experience-sharing articles, she could see areas for herself to improve in. In addition, she was touched by the upright actions of ordinary citizens who, upon learning the facts of Falun Dafa, chose to support the practice and stand up for practitioners in China.

She said she had thought about spending more time on other projects but soon realized that dividing her attention between two projects did no good to either project and also negatively affected her cultivation. It became clear to her that her mission was to do well in Minghui work. After she adjusted her mindset and devoted her full attention to Minghui, she not only became diligent again but also felt Master’s support and care all the time. For example, when her Minghui team was short of manpower, she was able to get more practitioners to join the team.

Furthermore, she talked about learning Chinese through reading Zhuan Falun, which helped her to translate articles directly from Chinese. (Many Western-language sites translate to their local languages from the English translations, lacking bilingual Chinese who could translate directly from Chinese) She could really feel the guidance and wisdom from Master. When sharing experiences of translating articles directly from the Chinese version, she said, “When my cultivation state is good, I could understand the article when I read it. I could feel connected with the author and thus accurately convey the author’s message in my language.”

“As long as I stay on the path arranged by Master, I know I will be able to find ways to improve,” she added.

Looking within

Another presenter said she paid attention to every single thought when doing translations. “Everyday people’s notions – such as excitement, complaint, or resentment – could be harmful to our readers,” she explained, “This is because these notions, if we harbor them in our minds, would be reflected in our translations and stain our articles with sticky and dirty energy.” When accepting additional new assignments, she also tried to get rid of human notions that might interfere with her responsibilities. The notions included selfishness, laziness, and attachment to comfort.

When she first joined the project, she lacked confidence in her translation skills. Sixteen years have passed and she found herself still worrying if her translation was good enough. On the surface, this seemed to show her sense of responsibility. When looking further, she noticed it was related to her ego – thinking of herself superior to others and being reluctant to correct her mindset. Behind the strong will of high-quality translation was her ego and fear of losing face.

Through her work with Minghui project and reading experience-sharing articles from practitioners in China, this presenter identified her own attachments and was able to remove them.

Cultivating Oneself and Saving People

A third presenter said she initially put translation work before her cultivation, thinking she’d find time to focus on her cultivation after finishing her translation assignments. Later on, she realized that the purpose of Minghui project was saving people and that her poor cultivation state would affect the translation quality. She came to see that every second spent on the Minghui project is part of her cultivation. With this understanding, she paid more attention to word choices and other details so that the readers could better understand the articles and learn the facts of Falun Dafa.

She also realized everything has been arranged by Master. “Master gave me an opportunity to align with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, something I need to follow throughout my life,” she explained, “This is possible only with a firm faith in Master.” She also noticed that the quality of her translation got better when she focused on the quality, not how much time she spent on the translation.

Overcoming Challenges with Power from Dafa

In addition to translating the articles posted on Chinese Minghui, the multilingual Minghui teams also translate various Minghui publications, such as Minghui Report: The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China.

One presenter shared the difficulties she encountered when translating the above-mentioned Minghui Report into her language, from translation to printing and promotion, from launching a website to establishing a publisher and complying with local laws, from storing and shipping books to dealing with financial issues. Every task felt like an insurmountable mountain. “But each time I would feel the help from Master. I was able to recognize my problems and overcome the challenges one by one, even if they appeared impossible to solve in the beginning,” she said.

This practitioner said working on the Minghui report was not to sell books. Rather, it was an opportunity for cultivation practice. “Launching Minghui Publishing Center will have a long-lasting effect for the everyday society,” she said, “With righteous thoughts and the power of Dafa, I know we can accomplish this mission.”

Arrangements from Master

Many multilingual teams have launched Minghui Radio (podcasts) like Chinese Minghui. One presenter said initially she did not want to work on her language’s podcast program since she liked doing translation more. But it was as if Master saw her thoughts and allowed her to hear much positive feedback on the podcasts. “My righteous thoughts became stronger and I knew that this [podcasting] is what Master wanted me to do and I would do it well,” she said.

Things changed for the better quickly and many practitioners began to help producing video and radio programs. They split the work and collaborate well with each other. Of course, along the way they also encounter difficulties and conflicts. When solving the problems, practitioners found studying Dafa teachings together and sharing opinions with an open mind helped resolve issues and enhanced cooperation.

Having worked on the Minghui project for 10 years, one presenter said challenges can be overcome as long as we have faith in Master and Dafa. “When having steadfast righteous thoughts and collaborating well with each other, our path will be wider and wider,” she said, “I have seen more clearly that Master has provided a path for me and I only need to walk it. When I have a sincere wish, Master arranges everything.”

Fa Study and Experience Sharing

The conference lasted four hours. Practitioners said they learned a lot from the 12 papers presented. Some said working well with each other is very important. To achieve that, we should enhance Fa study and improve our overall cultivation status.

One presenter said most of his team members are introverted and hardly anyone spoke during their own team's experience sharing. They thus decided to take turns so that everyone would share experiences at least once a year. This helped with the situation and even practitioners who were afraid and did not plan to share gave a great presentation. Through group Fa study, the sharing between practitioners as well as cultivation status improved. More practitioners on this team joined the discussions and there were no complaints anymore.

As the coordinator of her team, this presenter said it is critical to maintain a good environment. “That includes consistent group Fa study and group sharing,” she said.