(Cleanwisdom.net) At the end of 2003, Master told us to expose the evil in our local areas. Since then, practitioners in my area have collected a large amount of persecution data. Because we didn't know how to put it all together and edit it, we couldn't publish a local journal. At that time, a practitioner from out of town who knew how came to help us. I started learning how to use computers from him. I first learned typing. Little by little, I typed all of the persecution articles after he instructed me for a few days. At that time, many truth-clarification sites were sabotaged in our area. Practitioners were running around trying to rebuild the sites.
“Successfully Delivered”
I began to learn by myself little by little. First, I downloaded some informational materials from the Internet, and slowly I started learning how to make brochures. Since I used my mobile phone to go online and some of the overseas software to break the Internet blockade that practitioners gave me failed, accessing the Internet was very difficult. Sometimes downloading a complete document required many trials. Because I was determined to make the brochure, I managed to overcome many difficulties. Under the guidance and strengthening of Master, I quickly mastered the technique of layout. After several days (and nights), the first brochure finally took shape in our area.
Then my computer was suddenly down. The system was damaged and all the files were lost. I felt very guilty. Because the practitioner who knew what to do was very busy, it was not easy for him to come help me. Several days later, he came after learning what had happened. He reinstalled the system for me and taught me some new skills. I learned how to use “Flashget” to download files and update overseas software to break through the Internet blockade quickly.
I started from scratch, typing, downloading, and editing. Because I already had some experience, I could do it better and faster. When the coordinator took my work to show it to practitioners, they all liked it. At night, I uploaded the brochure to the Minghui website. Uploading failed in 30 minutes. I tried again but it didn't work. I fell asleep on my desk. When I woke up, my computer screen showed “Successfully Delivered!” I also saw a golden lotus flower next to it. I was very moved and I knew that Master was encouraging me to do better.
The content of the brochure was later enriched and became more complete for truth-clarification after being commented on and critiqued by practitioners. We worked as one body and handed out over 10,000 copies of the brochure in our area. The effect of our truth-clarification turned out to be very good. The evil was suffocated. For a long period of time, there were no incidents of persecution in our area.
Letting Go of the Ego
During the process of creating truth-clarification materials, it was difficult to make breakthroughs in technical areas. But as long as I could endure the pain, be persistent and have righteous thoughts, I could overcome it. The more difficult part came from letting go of my ego while working with practitioners amidst tribulations. Sometimes I couldn't distinguish whether the interference came from inside or outside. I was not sure whether I should use righteous thoughts to clear it or I should let go of my attachment. Even the slightest sidetrack in my thoughts could cause damage to the project and the effort of saving the beings.
Once, I received two manuscripts from practitioners. One was about a practitioner who tried to validate the greatness of Falun Dafa through personal experience. The other one was about exposing the local villains. Both articles were published by Minghui shortly after I sent them. I found another persecution-related article on Minghui. I incorporated the article with some local news and sent them to Minghui. After Minghui made some changes, the brochure was published. A few days later, Practitioner Z (a coordinator) came to see me with a brochure in his hand. He asked me sternly why I had sent it to Minghui in private. I told him that it shouldn't be a big deal as the article was reviewed and checked by Minghui. I shared my understanding with him and said that at present, truth-clarification sites were everywhere. Each truth-clarification site was a correspondence point. Every correspondence point had its own source of information. They could directly publish their local information online. My job was to collect all information, edit it, and compile it into a brochure. After Minghui published it, everyone could download it online and disseminate it to the hands of sentient beings. This way, persecution news could spread more quickly and safely, thereby suffocating the evil and facilitating the effort of saving beings.
Practitioner Z pointed out three things: The first thing was brought up by a practitioner who wrote the persecution report. She said the brochure changed the structure and original meaning of the article. Another practitioner pointed out that the content of the brochure was not very impressive. Thirdly, Practitioner Z said the content was not approved by all practitioners and thus it was inappropriate to publish it. I tried to explain to him that, because the original article was too long and it took up too many pages in the brochure, Minghui cut it. From the viewpoint of editors and readers, I believed my arrangement was reasonable. I told him that I agreed there was one sentence that was not edited correctly by the Minghui editor as it had changed the original meaning of the content. However, I told him, it would be all right as long as we corrected that one sentence. Practitioner Z insisted that we couldn't distribute the brochures and said that no brochure in the future would be produced and distributed in the region without group discussion and approval, even if it was published on Minghui. Later I learned that there was a truth-clarification site that saw a brochure on Minghui in their area. Practitioners then downloaded it and made 20 copies. They were ready to hand them out. Practitioner Z destroyed them and told them that no materials would allowed to be made without approval.
I felt that Practitioner Z had a lot of human attachments and treated the coordination between practitioners like coordination in ordinary society where rigid management was adopted. I had always placed great importance on exposing the evil in our area. Practitioner Z's act was, in fact, an obstruction to exposing the evil. I got very upset when I thought of this (at that time, I didn't enlighten to the fact that the evil was subtly using a practitioner's attachment to sabotage our project). I remembered another practitioner (who taught me the skills) once said how “autocratic” Practitioner Z was and how Practitioner Z said he was “disobedient.” I got more angry with Practitioner Z. But soon I realized my state was not right and I had to suppress my thoughts. Later on, I recognized my own problems through Fa study.
In “Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,” Master said:
“When you're attached to emphasizing your things you are too caught up in it and the Gods watching above can't stand it. Even though you keep claiming it's for the good of Dafa, and that 'my approach is good' and can reach such and such goal--and maybe that really is the case--still, we shouldn't have attachments that are too much like ordinary people. If you can really do that, all the Gods will say, 'This person is truly remarkable.' It's not like Gods see that your idea worked and then they raise your level. Instead, they only raise your level when they see that your understanding of it has improved. This is a truth in the Righteous Fa. If you're thinking, 'I'll have XYZ happen to me if I've gained such and such amount of merit,' well, yes, that's how it works for an ordinary person, and it might be what's looked at as far as certain facets of the cosmos's Fa-truths go or in a particular situation. But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining.”
Master's words touched my heart. I felt as if a large chunk of hard material had melted like ice. I became lightened immediately. That substance that had weighed me down for so long had disappeared. When I put myself into the shoes of Practitioner Z, I found that I had not communicated well with him beforehand. It was understandable why he didn't understand what I was trying to do. Because every practitioner's circumstances were different, their understanding of the Fa was different, so the projects they chose to do also differed. Even for the same project, every practitioner had his or her own ways of doing things. Every practitioner thought what he was doing was very important. If communications were not sound between them, it would create disharmony and adversely affect coordination due to their human attachments and difference in understanding the Fa.
It also involved factors in our own improvements. When I dug harder for my attachments, I realized that I had the attachment of seeking approval from others (as I got upset when my work was not adopted after spending a lot of time and effort on it). I also found that I had the attachments of jealousy and competitiveness as I showed disregard for practitioners and felt that their understandings were not as high as mine. Lastly, I used an accusing tone when I had discussions with practitioners, thus they wouldn't accept what I said.
We didn't coordinate this incident well. Time has passed, and it lost its impact with time. We couldn't do much about it but let go. But I learned a lesson from it and my xinxing improved. Since then, I have constantly tempered myself in the process of writing and editing articles. While letting go of my attachments, I gradually became more mature as a correspondent.
Always Put the Fa in First Place
In order to write a good truth-clarification article, all details must be taken into consideration. Only when I used my heart to do it could I achieve the goal of saving sentient beings. In order to find out the truth, I often had to travel tens of kilometers to verify the facts or obtain additional information. When I came back, I had to read a large amount of related materials for reference. After I finished the article, I had to repeatedly modify and tighten it before submitting to Minghui. When the feedback came back from Minghui, I then went to download the universal journal and local periodical. I had to select suitable materials that matched the local information. I then compiled it into a truth-clarification flyer before sending it to Minghui again. We started producing the brochure for distribution after Minghui published it.
As Fa-rectification progressed, using legal means for truth clarification, fighting the persecution, and saving beings took shape in China. Writing legal-related articles required more professional skills and I had to gain a certain amount of legal knowledge. I spent a lot of time studying legal materials and collected a large number of law ebooks online. I also read a lot of related articles on the Minghui website in order to sharpen my writing skills and paid a lot of attention to modifications made by the Minghui editors so I could make improvement in my writing. When I was involved with rescuing practitioners, I helped write appeals, complaints, indictments, and prosecution documents for practitioners' families.
During the process of coordinating with practitioners, we become more and more mature. Without much trouble, we managed to complete every aspect of the project smoothly. Of course, conflicts happened sometimes. As long as we placed the Fa in the first place and let go of our egos, we could break through the barriers and tribulations.
Once, four practitioners were persecuted in our area. We hired a lawyer to defend them. Before the hearing, I hurried to make a truth-clarification leaflet and informed all material production sites to print and distribute it. But because there was a problem in transporting the material, some areas didn't receive it, therefore affecting the overall distribution in the area. I pointed my finger at the practitioner who was responsible for transporting the material. But because I blamed and accused him, he denied it. My words also upset other coordinators, causing all other practitioners to be against me. I couldn't take it anymore and started arguing with them. The atmosphere was very intense at that time. I left early.
After I got home, I thought to myself: “I shouldn't fight with them. I should have backed down. I must let go of my attachment, but not the project itself.” I enlightened to my attachments of competitiveness and irritation. The evil tried to make use of our human attachments and gaps in order to sabotage our project.
In “Be More Diligent,” Master said:
“If you can manage to quietly complete what you notice is lacking, quietly do well what you should do, and quietly do something well when you find it to have been done less than ideally, then the multitude of gods will have tremendous admiration for you and exclaim that this person is simply extraordinary. Only doing things this way counts as what a Dafa disciple should do. So, this is one aspect. As Dafa disciples, then, any time cooperation is needed and yet arguments persist, or people are arguing without coming to a decision, you need to go about things in the manner I’ve discussed. And doing so, the evil will have no way to interfere.”
The next morning, I called one of the coordinators, but I couldn't get a hold of her. I thought to myself: “The evil will try to separate me from other practitioners.” I sat down and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference. At night, I was finally able to get in touch with Practitioner A. I told her that I was wrong the night before. She said that, after I left, other practitioners also recognized their own shortcomings. They enlightened to the understanding that they shouldn't reject a person's opinion because of his or her attitude. Practitioner A gave me some specific tasks. We were ready to further expose the evil. Practitioner A told Practitioner B to send me the indictment document, but she didn't. I finally got the document after going through many rounds with Practitioner B.
Before the hearing, we organized a sharing conference. All practitioners looked within for their inadequacies. We smoothly arranged what we needed to do. During the two weeks after the hearing, I followed up with the practitioners' families to make sure all the information I obtained was correct. I then carefully wrote the article and compiled it into a leaflet. Before posting, I had a discussion with all the coordinators to make sure we were on the same page. This time, we coordinated well. Practitioner B didn't come to the sharing conference because he was busy. Later, I tried to look for Practitioner B for some help. He agreed to cooperate. In the end, although we weren't able to rescue the practitioners, we did what we were supposed to do. After people read the brochure, they all felt good about it.
Since I became a Minghui correspondent for the past few years, I have deeply felt the importance of solid personal cultivation and coordination among practitioners. I felt I have not done well in many areas. Master's recent lecture has awakened me. I have to catch up with Fa-rectification and be more diligent. In the end, I would like to encourage all practitioners to be more diligent by sharing Master's teaching in “What's Dafa Disciple:” “I hope to see you regaining your enthusiasm and getting back to your best cultivation state. That’s all for today. Thank you all.”
Thank you, Master! Thank you, practitioners!
Heshi.
