(Clearwisdom.net)
Breaking Away from the Mentality of an Everyday Person and Setting up a Home Materials Production Center
I remember that it was between 2000 and the beginning of 2001, when I read experience sharing articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website about how many fellow practitioners in China had started to come out to distribute flyers that explained the truth about Falun Gong and exposed the persecution. I then thought that I should also go out to validate Dafa. I once talked to a fellow practitioner and said, "If I had flyers, I would not be afraid of going out to distribute them." At that time, I only had a very limited understanding about the principles of the Fa. However, because I had the thought that I would not be afraid, our benevolent Master made arrangement for me. Soon after that, the coordinator at the practice site where I used to go gave me a batch of Dafa posters. I did not realize then that this meant that I needed to go out and post them. I was afraid and thought that I should keep the posters safe no matter what.
In March 2001, I met with a practitioner who was distributing truth-clarification materials. At that time, I was eager to read things from the Minghui website and I asked her whether she had anything. She brought several hundred copies for me and other practitioners. As soon as I saw what she had brought I realized that these were not experience sharing articles. Instead, they were flyers for clarifying the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. That was the first time I had ever seen such flyers. I realized that this was a hint from Master telling me that I should go out to validate Dafa. Although I was somewhat afraid, I knew that I had to do it. I went out into the streets to distribute the flyers. During those several years, we did not have many materials production centers and therefore the available materials were limited, and at times even scarce. Therefore in 2003, I started to manually copy informational materials and spread the facts by mailing letters.
Later, as the Fa-rectification moved forward, we needed more and more materials. I started thinking about printing the flyers myself. However, being interfered with by my human mentality, I kept thinking that it would be impossible that my husband would help me print them. One time, a fellow practitioner came to my home and mentioned, in the presence of my husband, that another practitioner had been arrested for placing flyers in a phone booth. As soon as the practitioner left, my husband yelled at me, "Don't go out to distribute flyers. If you get caught, I would lose face.... Anyway, don't cause me any trouble ... " I continued to think that my husband was the barrier. I did not realize at that time that the biggest barrier was my strong attachment.
As we continually studied the Fa, I started to understand that in order to validate Dafa, I needed to improve the environment in my home. I was trying to improve, and my husband was also changing. Since the beginning of 2000, fellow practitioners frequently came to my home to discuss and share. Later we started our group Fa study again. Sometimes there were a dozen practitioners in my home to study the Fa. My husband never tried to stop us. I thought that it probably was not easy for my husband to behave this way and that I should give him more time before asking for his support so that I could print flyers .
But time was urgent. By the end of 2004 the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" had been published. At the beginning, copies were very scarce, but Master gave me a hint through a fellow practitioner. Through Fa study, I came to understand that I must print the Nine Commentaries. At the beginning of 2005, I bought a copier. Since I was afraid that my husband would not be happy about what I was planning to do, I did not tell him. I printed when he was not home. I knew his schedule. After he left home, I locked the door. Should he suddenly return, I would have time to put the copier away.
For more than a year, every time I made copies, my mind was not at ease, and sometimes I was so nervous that my heart beat really fast. With this mindset I could not copy the materials smoothly, and soon the copier started having problems, and the overall effect was not good.
In the second half of 2006, I thought about buying a color printer. I also started to learn how to access the Internet. After I read related articles on the Minghui website, I realized that this time I needed buy the right printer! However, I did not know how to talk about this to my husband and so, buying a printer was delayed for quite a while.
During that period, obtaining brochures for our group was difficult, and we could not get them in a timely manner. I knew that I was being given a hint to buy a printer, but I was still afraid to talk to my husband. At that time, Master helped me again. One day after I had finished copying and was about to clean up (usually I cleaned up about an hour before my husband came back) my husband suddenly returned and that was the day I had not locked the door! My heart started to race because I was afraid that my husband would scold me and probably take away the copier. However, to my surprise, he was only a little surprised and said, "Did you buy this? Why didn't you tell me. We can copy things!" Taking this opportunity I said, "This copier doesn't work well. I want to buy an ink-jet printer."
My husband did not say anything right away and I thought, "It's over!" Later, I came to understand that because I did not have a firm belief in Master and Dafa, my human mentality had been blocking me. Master taught us:
"Everything will be cleaned up for you in other dimensions. Your home environment will also be cleared. If your environment is not cleaned up and you have all sorts of things interfering with you, how can you practice cultivation?"("Lecture Six" in Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)
Master had already cleaned the field in my home, including my husband. He had greatly benefited both physically and mentally. However, I had still been looking at him with an everyday person's attachment. This experience helped me to understand that it is difficult to change the environment at home with our human mentality, but all barriers can be eliminated with righteous thoughts.
By the end of 2006, I bought a color printer. One of the reasons, of course, was to print things for my husband as well. Then I was able to print materials at home, even when my husband was home. Of course, I still have to constantly balance relations between family and Dafa work. I need to take care of my family and be a good wife. More importantly, though, I needed to harmonize my family with the principles of the Fa.
I often chose certain truth-clarification materials to give to my husband to read. When I obtained my first copy of the Nine Commentaries before I bought the first copier, I asked my husband to read it. After he had read the commentaries, he said, "Great article!" Later he asked me who had written them. I told him that as far as I knew, the commentaries were written by a group of Dafa practitioners under the guidance of our Master. My husband did not say anything but had an admiring expression on his face.
Since then, my husband's attitude toward Dafa, fellow practitioners, and me fundamentally changed. As I mentioned above, my husband reacted calmly and peacefully when he found out that I had bought the first copier. I believe his reaction was because he had already read the Nine Commentaries. But I did not understand it right then. My husband did not believe in prophesies before. After he read some materials and pamphlets, he even discussed these prophesies with my son on the phone; this would not have been possible before.
Recently, he asked me about where he would go in the future. We had already discussed this question several times. I told him, "There is one Dafa practitioner in our family and you have been supporting me with my Dafa work. During the recent several years, you have also supported fellow practitioners, letting them come to our home to study the Fa and share experiences, and now you are supporting me making truth-clarification materials. You will definitely have a good future." In my mind I thought, "Of course it would be best if you could practice Falun Gong." My husband looked very pleased. I then realized that when we truly treat our family members with benevolence, they will change their attitude toward Dafa and their innate kind nature will awaken.
Learning to Access the Internet with a Pure Mind
I did not know anything about computers, I did not know Pinyin (writing Chinese with the English alphabet), and I did not know English. Concerning the 26 letters in the English alphabet, I was able to read the first few letters and never even tried to remember the rest. I often read "l" as "i" and could not differentiate between "v" and "u." However, I believed long time ago that I could learn them. Master mentioned in Lunyu, "To put it frankly, no matter how advanced a computer is, it is still no match for the human brain."
Master also mentioned many times when teaching the Fa that computers were introduced by aliens. But we are Master's disciples during the Fa-rectification. As long as we follow our Master in this period of time and consider saving lives as our main responsibility, if we always have righteous thoughts when validating Dafa, then we should be able to do anything.
In the middle of 2006, a young practitioner taught me step by step how to access the Internet and the Minghui website, how to download and print. Other practitioners who had some knowledge about computers also put forth a lot of effort to help me. This way, my home-based materials production center was basically completed and now our Fa study group is self-sufficient with truth-clarification materials.
I have some suggestions about accessing the Internet and establishing a home-based materials production center.
A. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Zhuan Falun)
This is a principle of the Fa that Master taught us. Since I started accessing the Internet and printing materials, I personally experienced that no matter whether it was during our personal cultivation period or during the current Fa-rectification period, we are validating Dafa and saving lives. As long as we have the wish of wanting to cultivate well and wanting to do the three things well, Master will benevolently make arrangements for us, give us wisdom and provide conditions for us to do the three things well. Master will also guide us to do these things and will lead us to walk our cultivation path step by st. It was just like Master taught us, "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master. It is good enough if you have this wish." (Zhuan Falun)
B. My personal experience of "The Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
When accessing the Internet and producing materials, one can encounter many specific problems. I had been really frustrated for a period of time, especially when I was printing items. Some of the problems were that the printer did not print, the color was wrong, the ink case was blocked, paper jammed, and so on. I had read many discussions on the Internet about printer problems. Fellow practitioners could resolve the printing issues quite well. I had also tried to resolve the problems by myself. However, I wasted a lot of ink without being able to resolve these problems. I was really anxious and sometimes I even thought about quitting printing these materials. I felt ashamed for having such a thought, even though it was only a flash. The problem was I had not studied the Fa well and had a strong mentality of only doing things. The more I didn't study the Fa, the more my human mentality and attachments appeared. I used one attachment to cover up another attachment. Master taught us:
"The third thing is studying the Fa well. If you don't study this Great Law well your own Consummation won't be secured. What's more, all the important Dafa things you should do will be like ordinary people going about their business, with ordinary-person thoughts and with an ordinary person's basis, and then that's just ordinary people, at best that's just ordinary people doing good deeds for Dafa. Since you're Dafa disciples you can't dissociate yourselves from the Fa when you do things. You're still continually changing this most surface part that hasn't changed. That's why you can't go without studying the Fa. You must study the Fa well. In the process of studying the Fa you'll be able to keep clearing away bad elements in yourself, changing the last bit of stuff you have that hasn't yet been changed. Why did I always use to tell you so emphatically to study the Fa, study the Fa, and study the Fa well? Because it's of utmost importance." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," April 20, 2003)
Master continually reminds us that we practitioners have no alternative but to study the Fa well. We must persistently study the Fa without stopping. As long as we study the Fa with a calm mind, anything can be resolved. When a printer part was broken, the printer did not print and I was not able to fix it. From the principles of the human level, I needed to take the printer to a store to have it fixed. I sent forth righteous thoughts and took the printer to a computer store on my bicycle in the scorching July sun. I rode for nearly one hour to get there. The broken part was replaced and I bought a set of color ink cartridges. The printer has been functioning normally ever since then.
After I started accessing the Internet, I had many human mentalities. When I looked inside for reasons again, I found that I had the attachment of fear and worry when I started printing the materials. I was afraid that my husband would find out what I was doing and so I printed the materials behind his back and was always in a hurry. My thoughts were not righteous and I did not use the copier correctly, which resulted in paper jams. Secondly, I had often moved the printer around, which caused the ink cartridges to move up and down. The trapped air blocked the path of the ink and the copier would not print correctly. I could have resolved all the trouble with reasoning if I had based everything on the Fa. Thirdly, I tried to avoid trouble and pursued an easy way out. For example, I had initially thought that the copier repair center was too far away from my home and it would be difficult to take the copier there, so I postponed taking it in for repairs.
C. The Internet, printers, and everything in the human world has been prepared for Dafa practitioners to assist Master with the Fa-rectification. Master taught us:
"You are one body, just like Master's gong. Of course you and gong aren't the same thing, I'm just giving an example. It's just like my gong, which does different things at the same time. Some of it is continuously charging through the immense cosmos with tremendous force into the microcosm, toward what's higher and broader; the force is so massive and the speed is so fast, transcending all times as it rectifies the colossal firmament. Some of it, after this charging, eliminates the sinful karma of the beings at different levels and balances all the interwoven relationships among beings at different levels. Some of it assimilates beings, and some of it is repositioning beings. It's doing different things even at the beings' most microcosmic levels, at every level. Some of it does things in low dimensions, some of it protects the students, and some of it is cleaning out the evil--every facet of my gong is doing these things. In other words, one body doesn't necessarily do one thing." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" in Guiding the Voyage)
After I started accessing the Internet, my deepest impression was that the websites of our Dafa practitioners, under the guidance of Master, are arranged in a very orderly and vivid manner. The formation of Fa-rectification is huge and profound and contains everything.
The Internet is a field prepared for Dafa practitioners to cultivate and to validate Dafa, as well as to save lives. I think that every practitioner who has the ability should make use of the Internet. Actually, most families today have a computer and a printer. I suggest that more fellow practitioners break through all the barriers, discard their human mentalities, discard the attachment to fear, money, and wealth, and try to access the Internet and learn how to make truth-clarification materials. Life after life, for thousands of years, we have been waiting to assist Master during the Fa-rectification, to save lives, and finally to return to our true homes.
As Dafa practitioners, we should discard the attachment to money and wealth. If more practitioners can access the Internet and make materials, we would not only assist other practitioners who have been making materials for a long time, we would also help them to have more time to study the Fa and discard the mentality of doing things. We would also protect ourselves. It would be like "thousands of energy channels join together and turn the body into one without any energy channels or acupuncture points" and thus leave no gaps for the evil to take advantage of. At the same time, we would speed up our process of discarding attachments and keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification.
D. To Achieve Elevation as a Whole Body
Dafa practitioners are a whole body. Master taught us many times that Dafa practitioners should cooperate well together: "The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference," July 22, 2002)
After I started accessing the Internet and making truth-clarification materials, although I had some difficult times and many of my attachments emerged, my determination was not shaken. I continued to make these materials well and passed them on to fellow practitioners, so that they could save lives. Also, in our Fa study group there were practitioners who started practicing Falun Gong after July 20, 1999, and practitioners who came out to validate Dafa later than others. They had Zhuan Falun but needed Master's other Fa lectures and new scriptures. Looking at their longing for the Fa and their eagerness to join the Fa validation, I wanted to help them get the materials they needed. I thought that only by learning the Fa well could one cultivate and do the three things well. And a Dafa practitioner should not miss any of Master's Fa lectures and scriptures. I have been providing these for fellow practitioners. Currently, I am also learning to make CDs. Besides duplicating truth-clarifying CDs, I duplicated CDs of Master's Fa lectures for practitioners who did not have them, thus ensuring that we could learn the Fa well, break through human mentalities, and maintain our righteous thoughts, so that, as a whole group, we can keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification and do the three things well.
Although I encountered many difficulties and attachments during the above mentioned process, I was able to overcome any difficulties with the help and protection of Master. I feel that I have truly elevated a great deal. This cannot be separated from the cooperation and help of my fellow practitioners. Here I want to thank all fellow practitioners for their selfless help and cooperation and also fellow practitioners in my Fa study group for their cooperation and support.
In articles on the Minghui website, the cultivation of speech is often addressed. Fellow practitioners in my group usually do not ask who is doing what and we cooperate well when making the materials, as well as in choosing the contents. We are thankful to our great and benevolent Master for saving us and giving us the Falun and countless opportunities to build up our mighty virtue. We will not disappoint Master for his benevolent salvation.
In order to realize Master's grand wish and to assist him in the Fa-rectification, saving lives, re-building the cosmos, and fulfilling our prehistoric vows, we Dafa practitioner must firmly walk our paths well.
