Editing Another Practitioner’s Articles Is a Cultivation Opportunity

(Minghui.org) I have enjoyed reading since childhood, especially literary works, but in the process many bad things, such as fame, gain, sentiment, lust, and others, polluted my thinking. On the other hand, reading good literature laid a foundation for the writing I do to validate the Fa.

In 2003, Master told us,

“So you should not only do it in a traditional and upright way, depict what’s good, depict compassion, exalt Dafa, and give glory to Gods, but also, at the same time you need to demonstrate a high level of excellence in terms of skill, and demonstrate a traditional and upright standard.” (Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art)

I promised to use my pen to validate the Fa and praise Master, Dafa, and Dafa disciples. An environment was arranged for me to fulfill that pledge.

My Attachment is Exposed When an Article Is Retracted

A local practitioner began practicing Falun Dafa before the persecution began on July 20, 1999. Her cultivation is solid, and she is kind and honest. She experienced many amazing things, so I wrote an article about her and published it on our media website. It attracted many readers and received positive feedback.

I felt quite pleased with myself, thinking that I did a good job and that practitioners would praise me. I realized I had a desire for fame and gain, and I started sending righteous thoughts to eliminate this attachment. However, these thoughts kept appearing in my mind, as they had been deeply rooted and grew in me for a long time.

Later, due to an error in the article, a practitioner asked me to remove it from the website. I was reluctant and thought: “Can’t I revise and correct the error? Why do I have to remove it?” However, she insisted that the article be removed to protect the reputation of our media. I had no choice but to agree. Still, I felt extremely reluctant in my heart because I spent a lot of time and effort on the article, and I felt it was the best one I ever wrote.

I had a dream that night in which Master gave me a hint: If your xinxing is not up to the standard, you are not worthy of being in that position.

I woke up suddenly and realized the seriousness of cultivation. To ordinary people, our cultivation may seem nothing special, but it may be extraordinary and spectacular in other dimensions. Our media may seem insignificant compared with big media companies run by ordinary people. In other dimensions, our media is sacred, solemn, and spectacular. Even though what I wrote was meant to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, with so many dirty attachments on my part, how could it be worthy of being published on our sacred and pure platform?

Master told us,

“Don’t do Dafa things with impure human attachments.”(Cleaning Up, The Essentials of Diligent Progress III)

I felt really ashamed of myself. I thought the reason the practitioner wanted me to remove the article was because she had a strong attachment to fame and gain. In fact, all this was to help me realize how deeply I was attached to fame and gain myself. On the surface, the practitioner told me to remove the article, but in fact, it was Master and gods who requested it be removed. I decided to let go of my desire to use cultivation to satisfy my wish for fame and gain.

Learning to Play a Support Role

I still wished to praise Master and Dafa, and validate the Fa to save sentient beings using my pen.

An elderly practitioner rented a place in a school district near me so she could care for her grandson, who attends school there. We soon got to know each other. I was deeply touched by her devotion and faith in Master and Dafa, and the miraculous experiences she had. Every story she told would make a wonderful article.

“Why don’t you write your experiences down and have them published on the Minghui website?” I asked her eagerly.

“I have written a few, but there are still many stories I haven’t got around to putting down on paper,” she said. “In fact, Master gave me a hint in a dream in 2018, in which I saw a huge magic pen in the sky. It looked spectacular. I immediately thought of one of Master’s poems,

“Deterrence

The divine pens deter those demons in human skinLike sharpened blades, they extirpate rotten spiritsThe old forces pay not Fa its due respectWielding the pen you shall subdue the surge of madness”(Deterrence, Hong Yin II)

“I understand that Master wanted me to write down my experiences, but I’m not good at writing. I only started writing them down four years ago and I asked a practitioner to edit them before I sent them to Minghui.org for publication. There are so many miraculous incidents that happened to me that it would take a thick book to document them all, but I don’t know how to write,” she said.

“Of course, these are all human notions. Master has already given me a magic pen, so how can I still say that I can’t write?” she added.

I said, “Don’t worry. I can help you with the writing. Let’s work together to fulfill our mission to save more sentient beings.

“Let’s work on this together with no attachment to fame and gain or any selfish desires to validate ourselves because what we do is the most sacred and grand in the universe, and we should commit to using the purest mindset. Our abilities were given to us by Master and Dafa, and we use them to validate Master and Dafa, not ourselves. The glorious achievements of Dafa disciples in validating Dafa and saving sentient beings are recorded by gods in the cosmos, but the historical records left on earth must be written by Dafa disciples to leave for future generations.”

It was only later that I found a big attachment was hidden in my words—I was concerned that our submission might be removed if our hearts were not pure.

The practitioner was very happy and gave me her email address. She also sent me all the articles that had already been published on Minghui.org, as well as one that had yet to be published, which she asked me to revise for her.

Some of the manuscripts she sent me were not as vivid and inspiring as she described them when we talked. My first thought was, “If I had written them, they would have been very touching.” This thought was full of arrogance and conceit, but I did not detect and eliminate it at the time. The reason I was so obsessed with fame and gain was due to the accumulation of bad thoughts the old forces pumped into my mind over a long time, which enveloped me in a thick field of karma.

She also sent me a couple of emails asking me to help improve her writing skills. I thought, “For someone with no writing foundation, it will be impossible for her to learn to write good articles in a short time.”

Of course, my reaction was completely based on ordinary people’s way of thinking. Dafa is extraordinary, and practitioners experienced so many miracles. Furthermore, Master has already given her a huge magic pen. How could she not write good articles? I came to this understanding after I improved my xinxing through cultivation.

When this practitioner told me that Master gave her a magic pen, I admired her very much, but at the same time, I also felt a bit jealous: Why didn’t Master give me a magic pen?

I was really shocked when I realized how bad that thought was. I realized that my jealousy was so strong that it must be eliminated right away.

That day, I sent the practitioner an email, asking her to record all her experiences on her cellphone, from when she obtained the Fa to the time she went to Beijing to safeguard the Fa and to be as detailed as she could. I told her that I would write a lengthy report based on the materials and submit it to Minghui.org to commemorate July 20, 1999, the day the persecution of Falun Dafa began.

To my surprise, she replied, “Let’s talk about it when we see each other again.” There was not the warm enthusiasm she had shown earlier on.

Seeing the change in her mood, I looked inward to see if there was anything unrighteous on my part. I realized that behind my wish to write the article to validate the Fa, an attachment to fame and gain was mixed in. There was still an element of showing off and a desire to validate myself.

I thought that after the last incident, I let go of such bad stuff, but the fact was that they were still around and hidden deeply. These attachments frequently surfaced, and I realized I must keep eliminating them. I also realized another selfish thought—what I was going to write was of great significance and could save more sentient beings. With this awareness, I put aside the article she asked me to polish for her earlier.

When I realized my impure thinking, I stopped writing and focused on editing the article she sent me earlier. When I completed it, I emailed it to her.

She was very pleased when we met again and said the edited version was very good. She also told me that she didn’t want to record her experiences anymore because she could enlighten to more Fa principles when she wrote down her experiences than she could by talking on the phone. I agreed with her.

Later, she gave me a few more unfinished manuscripts and asked me to revise and edit them. This time, I completely let go of my ego or any desire for fame and gain. I gave up the idea of writing the comprehensive report I planned earlier and was very happy to support the practitioner and be a green leaf that sets off a red flower.

My xinxing also improved during the process of revising her drafts, as Master helped me a lot. I was immensely touched by the righteous faith the practitioner demonstrated in Master and Dafa. I was equally amazed by the miracles that happened to her while she was going through tribulations.

More importantly, I realized that everything Master arranged for me was the best. We just need to do everything according to Master’s arrangements, which are the best in terms of harmonizing the Fa. For example, I found that the short articles I wrote based on what she told me were far less vivid and touching than the articles I revised based on her manuscripts. The latter clearly showed her application of the Fa principles.

In the process of editing her manuscripts, I imagined myself in every test and tribulation she experienced. The protagonist in the articles was no longer the practitioner but myself: How would I get through such tribulations? What should I do in those situations?

Amazingly, I enlightened to the Fa principles the practitioner didn’t enlighten to or, rather, didn’t write down while revising her manuscripts. I was constantly shown the profundity of the Fa, which kept expanding. At the same time, I also found many human attachments and notions in myself that I needed to eliminate.

I added the Fa principles I enlightened to in the revised versions. As a result, the original articles, which were a bit bland, became rich and rounded, full of spirit and inspiration thanks to the power of Dafa. I was very touched as I read them. I was the one who benefited most from the process of editing the articles.

While I worked on the documents, Master’s Fa teachings were constantly revealed to me. I also felt the seriousness of believing in Master and the Fa. I truly felt the immense grace of Master and the boundlessness of the Buddha Fa and that Master was by my side all the time, protecting me, watching over all of us, and providing us with a ladder to heaven.

No language in the human world can express Master’s compassion and boundless grace. I only let go of so little, and yet, Master gave me so much. Master was holding my hand and leading me step by step up the ladder to return to my true home in heaven. I regret that I’ve merely been dabbling in cultivation for so many years, treating work like it was cultivation instead of cultivating my xinxing solidly. I will make amends starting now.

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation!